The Path of Sorrows, The Dragon Throne
by Nightheart
Summary: Seeking to forget makes exile all the longer, the secret to redemption lies in remembrance. For Yuka and Taiki the way forward lies in going back, and only the path of sorrows will lead them to a new hope.
1. Book I: Path of Sorrows: Chapter 1

She was greeted by Tai- er, Kaname's mother, who always seemed both pleased that she should take such an interest in her son, and wary of her for some reason. Perhaps she sensed Yuka's (carefully hidden) dislike of her. Yuka disliked the woman because she treated Kaname unfairly, she had no spine when it came to her husband, and she spoiled her other son to the point where it was a trial to be around the arrogant little brat. Still, it made no sense for Yuka to make an enemy of the woman so she was the model of politeness and kept her dislike to herself.

"Ah! Yuka-chan! So glad you could come today!" the woman said, all smiles and welcome.

Her other son was hovering in the background, just the same as he always did when she came to visit. He was scowling, also as usual. He still had a bit of a chip on his shoulder that Yuka had gone through him to gain more information on Kaname before she approached him. Well tough, the boy had enough of his own way at home; Yuka was not going to line up for him.

"Pleased to visit, Mrs. Takasoto, pardon the intrusion," Yuka said, bowing politely.

"Kaname's in his room, painting, as usual," Mrs. Takasoto said, motioning her in and setting out her usual guest shoes. "Go right on up, I'll be up with snacks in a few minutes."

"You don't need to go to any trouble," Yuka tried to reassure her.

In truth, the older woman was trouble. Because of her interruptions, Yuka had to wait until she knew the woman was out of hearing range before she could stop talking of inconsequentials like school and tests and get down to why she really came.

"Non-sense, no trouble at all," Mrs. Takasoto replied. "You're the only one who ever comes to visit my Kaname. My other boy has so many friends over all the time playing that game system we got him for New Years, but Kaname never had a single friend until you came along."

Yuka smiled politely because she had nothing she could say to a statement like that and hurried up to Kaname's room.

As ever it was filled with the scent of oil-paint and turpentine. Kaname stood in the light of the sole window of the room. It did not face north, so the hours when he could get truly good light to paint by were limited. Kaname disliked artificial light for painting. He worked away hurriedly, his brush-strokes quick and efficient but deft and certain as well. He was shaping up to have a wonderful talent. Yuka studied his painting, it was unfinished, the painting was done in the blurry style favored by impressionists like Monet and Van Gogh; the colors were vivid but the shapes and features in them were vague and dreamlike. Yuka could just make out an impression of a lions body, but light gleamed off from the tail of a snake and golden hair glinted softly in the diffusion of color.

"I had another dream last night, Yuka. This one was more vivid than any I've had all week," Kaname said in his quiet, almost emotionless voice.

She could make out what looked like the glow of a single candle in the background, and an impression of moonlight landing on some kind of cloth that had a soft sheen to it, probably silk.

"That's Sanshi," Yuka explained to him. "It's a creature from the other world, with the hindquarters of a lion, the torso of a woman, the tail of a snake and... I'm not sure what else."

She didn't tell him that she had heard from Youko that the creature had been bonded to him personally, like some kind of mutant nursemaid, but she didn't think he was quite ready to hear that bit yet. Kaname still thought he was human. She wondered whose job it was going to be to finally break it to him that he wasn't, and hoped it wouldn't fall to her. She was lousy with emotional conflicts.

"Tell me more about the other world," Kaname said.

Yuka smiled a little and made herself comfortable while he painted.

"After your mother comes in with those snacks she threatened I will," Yuka said.

Snacktime when Yuka visited was the only time that Kaname could get food without meat in it at home. Yuka used her status as a guest to get Mrs. Takasoto to give them vegetables and fruits and water (no dairy).

"Thank-you for coming over," Kaname said.

His eyes and attention were on his painting, but Yuka could hear the sincerity in his voice. Kaname knew he was different from others somehow, and while it was his nature to accept the world more passively than many would, that didn't mean that he didn't feel lonely because of it. Yuka often felt like more of a young mother to him than his mother was. Yuka felt personally that Kaname's mother did little for him, she never checked with him to see whether he was getting on fine in school or if he was being picked on, she never seemed to praise him or help him with his homework (Kaname never mentioned it anyway) and Yuka sensed that the only time she ever paid him any attention at all was when he was doing something she didn't like.

_Any other parent would have covered the walls of their home in his paintings!_ Yuka thought irritably to herself.

"You're doing it again," Kaname reminded her.

Yuka took a breath to calm her spike of irritation. Anyone else would have thought it unnatural how attuned Kaname was to the emotions of the people around him (and the other students at school did avoid him and whisper about it) but to Yuka it was only to be expected. It was his unique and special nature.

"I was just thinking that it's a shame that your mother does not display your work," Yuka replied. "Any other parent I could think of, except maybe mine-"

Her father would have displayed them (if she'd had the talent to paint the way Kaname did), but not because he liked them or thought that they had any real merit, but because doing so would enable them to boast of artistic talent in her family. As it stood, her father felt that if Yuka couldn't be born a natural child prodigy, then she should work her fingers to the bone to create the illusion of being one. She had grown to detest the violin for a number of reasons.

"- would be pleased to display them," Yuka informed him.

"Mother doesn't like them," Kaname said tonelessly. "She says that they look strange to her and she doesn't like the weird subjects of them."

"What about that map? The one you entered in the competition and won first place with?" Yuka questioned.

"I told the teacher to keep it. Mom said it didn't match the furniture."

A likely excuse. Didn't match the furniture indeed!

"Why are you so angry?"

"I'm not angry, I'm upset on your behalf," Yuka clarified, though she was aware she did still have some issues with her aggression.

She was just born in the wrong era. Everything was so tame and moderate in these modern days, everyone was expected to conform, to be nice, to bow politely. No-one seemed to fight for what they believed in anymore, and if a person was willing to do so they got labeled as violent and sent off to places for "sensitivity training' where they were made to turn all of their feelings into pasty, socially acceptable mealy little things without any fire behind them.

Yuka often wondered why she had ever come back. What had she been thinking? How could she have ever thought she could be happy marrying some mealy-mouthed little salary-man and raising three kids in the suburbs? What kind of life was that? This world she lived in drove her nuts, living in it was like always walking around with a shirt and shoes that are about half a size too small; tight in strange places and never quite right. She felt restless.

"You don't need to be, you know," Kaname said quietly. "I'm fine."

_No you're not, you'll never be fine in this place. Not completely. You're too different. You're meant for something else,_ she thought at him, but said nothing out loud.

Kaname paused in his work and looked over at her, searchingly. She didn't actually think he could hear thoughts, but he must have picked up on the pity behind them.

"Why do you always feel sorry for me?" Kaname asked her honestly.

"Because," she avoided.

She knew already that she could not lie to him; it was the nature of the kirin to sense a lie. Dishonesty was as contrary to their nature as violence.

"Besides, who else would listen to my stories?" she changed the subject adroitly.

Kaname smiled his small, quiet smile as they listened to the sounds of his mother coming up the stairs and trying to do it silently so that she could overhear what they were speaking about. When she had gone, Yuka began to tell her Kaname about how babies were born on trees in the other world.

Kaname looked saddened as she told them how the whole village might join in an impromptu festival the moment a fruit appeared in answer to a hopeful set of parents petition to the gods for a child.

"So, there are no unwanted children over there..." he said sadly.

Yuka mentally kicked herself for picking that topic. She wasn't good with people, but even she was not so dense that she couldn't tell that Kaname felt unloved and unwelcome in his own home. His father was absent (apparently as much as possible) on business trips for much of the time. His mother was unnerved by him and lavished most of her time and affection on her younger, natural son.

He sighed a little, softly and murmured

"It must be nice..."

Yuka tried not to show how surprised she felt by that statement. In all of the time she had been telling these tales to him she had never once heard him say anything about them, either positive or negative. He'd never ventured a comment or opinion about them and Yuka was so taken aback and elated she wasn't sure how to proceed right away. She wanted to encourage his interest, but she knew if she pressured him he'd curl right back up into his shell again. She worded her next sentence carefully.

"It is by no means a perfect world," she said. "Even though the gods that rule it and set the system in place clearly tried their very hardest to make a world that would be fair, it cannot be so. There are people that are unwanted there, people that are abused and neglected, abandoned and betrayed. There are corrupt kings who use people to their own ends-"

Oh she knew that last one quite well. Granted, the king in question had been dying because he had lost the Way and denied the Mandate of Heaven, but it had still happened.

"And court officials who over-tax and live well, while their people starve."

Suddenly, she was seized by an inspiration. She wondered if she should do it. Up until now she had been very quiet, very circumspect about the role of kings and kirin in that other world. She didn't want to push too hard, but she had made a breakthrough today, perhaps now was the time!

_Well, why not?_ she thought to herself. One did not gain without risk, after all.

"But that is why they have the kirin!" Yuka said, injecting her voice with as much cheer and excitement as she could.

She was excited, but mostly because she was really going to try to get through to him. She was being cheerful so that maybe he'd like the idea right away.

"Kirin?" Kaname asked, sounding intrigued in spite of himself. "Like, mythical unicorns?"

"Yes exactly, though in the other world, they don't just have the form of a horse, they can also change shape so they look like men or women too. They have a very special, very unique job over there..."

"Like what?" Kaname asked, clearly being drawn in against his will.

Part of him wanted to know this, she could just feel it.

"Well, you remember how I told you that there are twelve kingdoms?"

He nodded.

"Each of these kingdoms is ruled over by a king or queen, but that person isn't born into a royal family like over here. Over there, in order to be a ruler you have to be chosen by a very special creature that is mandated by the gods. The Kirin. The Kirin picks out the next ruler when the old one has died."

"How?" Kaname asked.

"I don't know," Yuka replied. "I think that's something only the kirin know. And when they chose the next ruler they get down on their knees like this..."

Yuka knelt down, as though she were kowtowing herself in abject apology. It was not a natural pose for her to assume, and it felt a little odd doing it in her modern setting.

"And they say...'I swear never to desert my post before your throne.'"

Kaname froze, his gaze turned inward and Yuka wondered if she'd pushed things too far when she saw tears well up in his eyes. His voice was shaky as he broke the silence

"And then what?" he asked sounding short of breath.

"And then the prospective ruler accepts the will of heaven," Yuka said. "And the two of them enter into a one-of-a-kind compact."

"What kind of compact?"

"In order to rule a country effectively, the gods seem to feel it was necessary to have balance, an intellect to rule wisely and a heart to rule well. Rulers must often make very difficult decisions and commit actions which would go against kindness; it is the nature of ruling a kingdom. But on the other hand, a ruler who rules only with his head will not take into account the suffering and sorrows of his people. So the ruler leads the people, but there is a check on him or her in the form of the kirin, whose job it is to be the heart. He's the one who tells the ruler if his decree is too harsh or if he is not taking the needs of the people into account."

"The heart of the throne..." Kaname murmured.

"The two of them rule together until..." Yuka trailed off, reluctant to explain everything about it. She still remembered well that fateful night and the revelation of the King of Kou. She wasn't sure she wanted to go into the gory details just yet, so she simply said

"Until the ruler dies."

"And then the kirin has to pick another one?" Kaname asked.

"Ye-es," Yuka said a bit hesitantly.

"You are upset," Kaname stated.

"It's a sad business," Yuka replied deciding she would leave it at that. "Gosh, look at the time. I've been here for hours! I should really get back home, I still have to log in my practice hours or Father's going to cut off my escrima privileges."

Kaname looked at her steadily, perfectly well aware that, while she was speaking truthfully, it was an excuse. She smiled softly, and a touch ruefully, and rose to depart.

"Sleep well," she said, going to leave.

"Yuka?" he called over to her as she reached the door handle.

"Yes?" she asked, turning to look back.

He seemed to hesitate. Then he opened his mouth again, looking uncertain of what he wanted to say.

"What do you think it's like... to be the heart of the throne?"

Yuka took a moment to consider it before she answered.

"I think it must be confusing," she pronounced at last, thinking of Kourin and her fate; and the actions and fate of her ruler, King Kou.

Yuka had thought it sad that Kourin should be so good and so loving, and yet shackled to a ruler who would not stop what he was doing even though it caused his poor helpless kirin, who had never done anything but try to support him to the best of her abilities, fall ill of shitsudou. The king of Kou had made an essential slave of one who should have been his partner.

"Kirin are created by forces outside of their control for a purpose and a destiny they won't always have much of a say in," she replied. "So much seems to happen to them and it often seems that the only thing they can do is to try their best with what they are given."


	2. Book I: Path of Sorrows: Chapter 2

Tanlin was carried more than led by the five guards that surrounded her. Her crime was officially listed as "treason" though she considered herself as more of a patriot than a traitor.

:_The only traitor in this place is that man who sits on the throne and calls himself king, but rules without the will of Heaven_,: she thought fiercely.

It had been nearly six years since the disappearance of Tai's rightful king, Gyousou Saku and the kirin of Tai, Taiki. What could only be rightly called a usurper now sat upon the throne. Tanlin was more aware of what went on within the confines of Whitejewel Palace than an average person. The previous king, Kyou-ou had been a man fond not only of creature comforts, extravagant jewels and silks, and a generous patron of the arts (so generous and extravagant was he that, even before his kirin had underwent shitsudou, the kingdom's treasury had been bankrupt) but also a great lover of women. He had had an entire wing of the palace devoted as his harem before he'd died. On his own ascension, as Gyousou was releasing servants and firing musicians left and right, he had often wondered what should be done with the burden of all of the women in the royal harem.

:_Being the uptight, virtuous, military sort, the general wasn't interested in dallying about with us ladies_,: Tanlin thought with a feeling of lingering amusement at the look if shock and dismay she had seen on the new kings face as he finished his first tour of the royal palace and discovered just how vast the collection of women that his predecessor had been housing (at the expense of the state no less) really was.

The women of the harem had been fed and clothed with the finest during the reign of the former king, and had also had an army of servant to attend to them. Unlike the musicians, the courtesans of Whitejewel Palace had no real marketable skill other than their, ah… _skill_. The newly crowned King Gyousou had not, in good conscience, been able to simply turn them out into the cold without a means for the courtesans to support themselves. It was another mark of his kindness that he'd simply shelved the matter for later discussion and cut their inner-palace budget to a minimum then released nearly all of their servants. There had been a tempest in a tea kettle in the day that the pampered palace ladies had learned that they were all expected to learn to care for themselves… the delicate blossoms had never once so much as had to lift a finger to do menial tasks were now expected to launder and clean and wash their own articles and tidy their own chambers.

:_There is no denying that, though his time of rule was short, General Saku was a man of vast virtue… if more than a little uptight_.:

It had been later on that year that King Gyousou had disappeared while quelling a rebellion in one of his northern provinces. The women of the harem had (_then_) felt the person who had taken over the court in the chaos surrounding the disappearance of the ruler was an improvement on him. General Ansen, the general of the Left (and the former General Gyousou's "twin jewel") took over the court on the absence of king and kirin in order to hold things together _supposedly_ until the king and his kirin could be found once again.

:_After six years with no sign of either of them, I don't think anyone else is buying Ansen's claim to power as being only a temporary seizure during an interregnum_.:

Especially not once the Black Guard, Ansen's own private army comprised of cast-offs and mercenaries from the other kingdoms, started showing up and securing key locations. At first it had been touted as "pacifying the countryside" in the absence of the king. Tamlin, a courtesan attached to the west wing of the palace had only had the rumors going around the palace to believe, and at first, along with all of the other women of the harem, she had believed the official story.

:_I feel like I was so naïve back then_,: she thought ruefully.

The women of the harem were generally kept within the harem walls anyway so they had little to go on but the gossip and rumors flying through the palace. The palace itself was isolated from the rest of the world below by the height of the mountain on which it was built. Even then, and with the general preference within the harem for the more liberal reign of Ansen, there had been questions about him. The military, as loyal to Ansen as to their liege Gyousou, caught onto the danger too late.

It had been three years ago when Ansen's "temporary" grasp of power became a full-blown coup. Tanlin had heard through the rumor mill that a secret cabal of some officers and civil officials that resented Gyousou's rise to power had banded together and killed him during the civil conflict and kidnapped the kirin of Tai. Ansen had "reacted" by ordering his personal army, the Black Guard to round up the traitors and put them to death. Tamlin hadn't been aware of it at that point, but this purge was actually a coup by the usurper to get rid of the last true supporters of the king and put his own men in place.

:_It was around this time that the first of us began to disappear_,: Tanlin thought with sorrow and regret.

If only she had known, there might have been something she could have done, some way she could have gotten word out or help before she too had been trapped within the walls of the harem. When she thought of how she had spent her afternoons primping before the mirror and trying on outfit after outfit to determine which one was more likely to catch the eye of the current man in power, she could only regret her foolishness.

It had started with Kelya, one of her rivals (they had all been rivals more or less in those days, but Kelya had been a particular rival of hers with her milk-white skin and refined oval features). She had been summoned to the rooms of Ansen. It had been kept quiet at the time, but rumors always circulated through the harem. When she had not returned the next morning, most girls had taken it as confirmed that Ansen had chosen a favorite and had his concubine's quarters moved closer to his own. After several days had went by, another of the courtesans was summoned. This caused a small wave of gossip, but no real fear or anxiety… _that_ came later, when the numbers of the courtesans who were missing started to grow at a steady rate.

:_It was also at this time when he started bringing in women from the outside_.:

That had caused a sea-change in the way that the harem was run. First, there were guards posted everywhere. But that was not the most shocking thing, the most shocking thing was that the women brought in were not courtesans at all, but rather they were true noblewomen! From every province which would not immediately swear their fealty to the usurper, Ansen had taken hostages to compel the magistrates and noblemen of those places to rule their counties as well as they could… or their families would suffer the consequences.

The women of the harem got their first real news of the outside world, and the picture it painted had not been pretty; black guards had taken over the positions formerly held but officers in the military of the kingdom of Tai, the countryside was overrun with youma, and crops were not as easy to plant due to a decline in population.

:_Because there's nothing like a herd of rampaging monsters on your land to mess with your population numbers_.:

It was then that Tanlin had decided that she would do what she could from her position inside the palace to help the true defenders of the kingdom of Tai do what they could to restore their poor kingdom to the balance of Heaven. She listened to rumors and tried to gather information but she'd had no real way of getting it out to anyone who would do something with it. As a spy, she was… well, she was probably not cut out for it. She had tried to search around the palace for any news of the rightful king, and had wound up getting herself caught and sentenced to execution by the usurper-king instead.

The numbers of the original courtesans from the previous king had numbered well into the triple digits but after three years of disappearances they were all almost all gone.

:_I'm one of the last of them_,: Tanlin thought with regret as she was led into a part of the palace she had never seen before.

She didn't know where it was she was going, just the same as she didn't know where it was her sisters had gone, but Tanlin was certain she wouldn't be returning from it.

The place where she was being led to was in a section of the palace she had never seen nor heard of before, it was in a small tower, down a staircase under a hatch in the floor guarded by soldiers ringed all around it from above, there was a long corridor with many doors, all of them locked, then a door in the wall sharply to the right led her down another staircase that went down for so long Tanlin thought she might be walking all the way down the mountain itself. At the landing a the bottom of the stairs was another door, this one locked with a great number of locks.

Waiting for her on the other side of the door was Ansen himself.

:_I can't believe there was a time when I thought him handsome_!: Tanlin thought with venom. :_If my mouth wasn't gagged I'd spit on him_.:

Despite the fact that he was indeed a usurper, General Ansen was a physically attractive man. His form was lean and broad of shoulder, with a leonine grace that came from maintenance for the arts of war. His face indeed had a graceful evenness to it, his hair was back as a raven's wing, but there was something about his eyes… they held a sharpness, but unlike King Gyousou's which had held a measure of kindness in them, (despite the King's often intimidating aura) Ansen's eyes sparkled darkly, with a ruthless intelligence.

"It's almost a pity to see you here Tanlin," Ansen said, not sounding sorry at all. "But I think we both know it would have wound up this way sooner or later. And who knows, maybe you'll come out of it alive and be useful for my purposes. I wouldn't lay long odds on that one however, considering your… _unique_ background."

Tanlin was led over to a long twisting staircase that spiraled down into a deep, deep hole that went down for a very long way. Torches had been wedged into natural ledges carved into the rock of the pit along the way down and they flickered dimly in the gloom. Stones rattled over the lip of the hole as Tanlin fought being forced over to the place. They took a frighteningly long time to fall to the bottom and when they did thy hit with the plinking sound of a stone being dropped into water.

Because she was gagged, all she could do was glare back at the man who called himself king with false bravado. He might have the power of life and death over her right then, but she could at least die with her pride.

"Maybe you will live after all, no tears I see, so you certainly seem to have more spirit than many of the girls that came before you," he said in a musing tone, as though they were discussing nothing of greater importance than what he intended to eat for dinner that night.

"I suppose your spirit merits you one final courtesy," Ansen said as he reached behind her head and loosened the knot on the gag and allowed it to drop from her face.

Tanlin didn't waste her breath on screaming, instead she looked right back at the false king and said

"It doesn't matter how long you sit on that throne, one day our king will return! King Gyousou rules by the will of Heaven and no matter what you do, you cannot win against that. He'll find you, and he will stop you!"

Instead of being dismayed by her reminder that his time on the throne was limited, Ansen only looked back at her with amusement.

"You're not the first of your number to say such things to me, and really, it amuses me every time. I can never seem to get enough of the look on your courtesan faces when you see the truth."

"What truth is that?" Tanlin demanded, trying not to let her voice quaver.

"Here… let me show you."

Ansen spun on a heel and led her back away from the edge of the pit, out of the small side-cavern and down deeper along the main hall. He led her to another door and up a short flight of stairs, down through a small hall that twisted and turned in what looked like tunnels that had been carved by the hand of nature rather than by man, along the rock. There was another door with a great number of rocks in it. The door swung open into a vast, naturally carved stone cavern. The walls looked frosted with ice and snow, which was odd because the temperature didn't feel any different than any of the other caverns. The floor was rough and uneven with tall pillars of white stalagmite rock formations.

"Look closely," Ansen said, bringing a nearby torch to bear on the ice-like stalagmites jutting up from the ground.

The light shone through the crystal pillar, sparkling like sunlight through the icicles on the eaves of a house in wintertime.

"That is-!" Tanlin gasped in shock and dismay.

The crystal pillars that lined the walls and jutted up throughout most of the cavernous room held figures frozen into them, like leaves in the fall trapped in the ice of winter. They were figures that Tanlin, from her long familiarity with the court and ministry of the palace, recognized. They were all of the ministers and soldiers, military and government officials that had objected to Ansen's "temporary measures" in the beginning of the interregnum and had disappeared one by one over the last several years.

"That's minister Shensou, and Minister Li, and…" she said in horrified dismay as she touched the cool (but, oddly, not ice-cold) surface of the nearest pillar holding a face she recognized. Each of the figures frozen in the pillars wore chains, and looked asleep, but their frozen features lacked the grey pallor of death. They were still alive somehow.

"Are you surprised? Have you ever seen such a thing? I'll wager you haven't," Ansen said smugly. "The substance holds them in a deep, ageless sleep and is impermeable. One would have to have the right antidote to melt them from their prisons, and only I know the formula for the mixture. But come, I haven't shown you the, heh, crown jewel of my collection."

Tanlin was almost afraid to know what else this man might choose to show her, but followed him anyway, deeper into the cavern. She tried to ignore all of the faces of the people frozen in the… whatever it was, that surrounded her, a moment later she had something to take her mind off from her feelings of unease.

Ansen stopped her just at the outside of a ring made of white stones that circled around a stone dais placed in the exact center of the cave, and surround by what appeared to be five large stone boulders at even intervals.

:_What kind of boulders would have chains surrounding them?:_ Tanlin wondered idly to herself then switched her attention to the other mystery in the room.

The dais placed before her did not hold any sort of artifact or great treasure, instead the entire surface of it was covered in sharp up-jutting spikes of metal. The tips were pointed and it even seemed like the edges of the spikes were sharpened with serrations.

:_Why would anyone put up such an unusual arrangement_?: she wondered to herself, not seeing anything that would cause Ansen to gloat, some rocks and a few spikes of metal sticking up out of the ground.

"Look _up_, courtesan," Ansen prompted.

Tanlin obediently did so, what she saw in the flickering torchlight made her heart sink to her toes. There was a great metal chain hanging from the vaulted ceiling of the cavern which soared many, many feet above her head. Dangling at the end of the chain was what looked like a series of intricate metal cages, one inside the other inside the other, and she could just see something glinting inside the very center cage, glittering in the air like sunlight through ice.

"As you can see, courtesan, my former twin general is the very least and last of my worries."

"Your majesty," she whispered in despair, certain that that _had_ to be who hung there in the cage above the spikes.

"Even if someone managed to get past the guards posted in this place," Ansen added. "That chain is attached to a number of traps to take out anyone fool enough to try to rescue him. Even if they made it past the traps, there are still the cages to unlock, and a single mistake made in the unlocking them will cause the rescuer to be locked in with his prize. A few have made it that far…"

He gestured to a small pile of bones made into a macabre arrangement, like a child stacking wooden blocks.

"Even on the miraculous chance that they should some how manage to rescue him from out of this place… they'll never free him from the shell that contains him. The substance is as hard as stone, so any blow hard enough to shatter it would also shatter the person inside of it. That's assuming they could somehow manage to _get_ to the king _at_ _all_…"

At that moment one of the rock formations, or rather, what Tanlin had taken to be rock formations, suddenly _moved_. Unwinding itself from its curled up pose of rest, the "boulder" resolved itself into a form with a long, serpentine neck, a great triangular head sporting powerful jaws filled with sharp cruel fangs, enormous talons on the ends of powerful haunches and forelimbs gripped the stone, a hide of scales that were tougher than armor glittered in the torchlight and lastly there was a creak and snap as two great wings of leather, gleaming with a strangely beautiful iridescence in the light snapped out and beat at the air for a second before falling into place on its back. The creature looked out at her with soul-less hungry eyes, clearly debating with itself about the feasibility of her usefulness for a snack.

"Drakh!" she gasped in fear and alarm, backing away from it instinctively.

Even in the ranks of monstrous beasts there were youma and then there were _youma_. Most youma would only be large enough and fierce enough to handle two or three people at a time; certainly, they could cause damage, but with concentrated effort, planning and coordination, it was possible for a town guard to drive them off. Tanlin had only heard stories of the drakh, but _they_ were a (thankfully rare) species of youma that made armies weep in despair. They were so large, and so fierce and so dangerous that it was said even the earth trembled at their onset. Drakh had hides that could not be pierced by weapons, it was said. They could change their forms, fly, and harness the power of the elements with their breath. According to legend, whole armies had been decimated by the attack of a single drakh.

:_And here are five of them_…: she thought in despair.

It would be impossible for anyone but a god in physical form to make it past that many drakh, they were simply to powerful.

"So as you can see, the rightful king is well-protected. Even if the kirin of Tai should ever manage to return and find his liege, Gyousou here will never be restored to the throne. The destiny of this kingdom is in my hands."

On that note, Tanlin was led out of the chamber and back down the hall to the fate that had awaited all of her sister courtesans, and now awaited her.

The pit at the bottom of the other cave didn't look any shallower the second time she saw it, and the narrow twisting stone stair she was all but shoved down onto seemed to go on forever as she descended down it. There was a small landing at the bottom surrounded on all sides by water. Torchlight flickered dimly in the gloom, a dense mist hovered over the surface of the water as Tanlin looked around her.

"Ah… my poor sisters!" she gasped in sorrow. "I fear that our kingdom may forever live outside the protection of the Emperor of Heaven. An immortal usurper sits upon the throne, whose status on the Registry can only be revoked by the King, and the King is sealed away in an ageless sleep that cannot be broken except by his usurper."

The man had covered every contingency, the army was his, the castle was his and even their great and fearless king was unable to strike at him. Taiki was still no-where to be found, and even if he were, the king was sealed away from him, he could not die and so the kirin could not even choose a new king. Tai was going to need a miracle.

The waters surrounding her started to ripple and lap at the edges of the small island she stood upon. What she had taken to be stone islands breaking the surface of the water, began to move with an unhurried deliberation all around her. Two wide, lambent pools of blue-green light gleamed in the night, shining dimly through the mists just over the surface of the water. The lights reared up over her, the form resolving into what Tanlin recognized (by descriptions from stories) as belonging to the legendary gorkuren "the ice-fire beast".

Its head wove from side to side, and Tanlin watched it with all the fascination of a mouse caught in the gaze of a snake. There was no point in even trying to run, the gorkuren, even if it were not faster than the winds in its home habitat, breathed the cleansing fire.

:_Unfortunately, the miracle will not be held by me_,: Tanlin thought.

The world around her faded to white light and her sad, sheltered life flickered out like the last candle in the dark.

* * *

**A.N. Because this story is based off the anime, I had to take a few liberties with the storyline. When I started writing this fic I had not been able to find a copy of the book The Sky At Dawn which told of what happened next after the anime ended, the only thing I had to go on had been a short not-very-detailed synopsis posted on someone's blog that I'd found using Google. That post had listed the main bad guy's name as Ansen and not Asen. By the time I read Eugene Wood's wonderful translation I'd already written about fifteen chapters and didn't feel like changing it.**

**This particular chapter by the way is an insert/rewrite. I could never figure out how exactly to word what I wanted to put. It was only after I'd figured out how Ansen got away with holding an awesome guy like Gyousou Saku prisoner somehow (I couldn't imagine he would have been held prisoner, and amnesia would have been redundant) that I could figure out what to put in this chapter... which it sort of a weird way to go about writing it now that I think about it.  
**

**Reveiws are love... love me? Even a little? That's okay, I resigned myself to the fact that this is probably going to be the least popular thing I've ever written. It gets better, I promise.  
**


	3. Book I: Path of Sorrows: Chapter 3

She awoke feeling cold from the inside, a chill feeling of premonition hummed in her bones. She tried to ignore it, to turn over and go back to sleep, but the feeling persisted until she could no longer stand it. Yuka got up from her bed and went over to her window to look out into the night in order to see if it wasn't just some noise from outside that had woken her. Part of her, like a little child, wanted to turn the light on and chase away the shadows. The street in front of her window was silent and unoccupied and gleamed blackly from the light of a distant street lamp. She couldn't see anything amiss, no furtive movements caught her eye, but the strange feeling wouldn't go away. She stared out into the night for a long moment, trying to discern what was bothering her, the leaves in the tree in front of her window shushed more loudly as the wind began to pick up.

:_A storm_!: part of her whispered in the back of her mind. :_And not just any storm, but one of those world-gate storms like Keiki can make._:

She could feel the heady tension, its unique gravity building up. This was not just any storm. The unexpected had occurred, a one chance miracle. All she had to do was get the unicorn over to the pier and dump him in it, and he'd be over in the other world! He could fulfill his destiny and help his king and finally be what he was supposed to be.

Yuka, already out of bed, felt galvanized into sudden action.

:_Hmmm, he'll need things that can help him survive over there until he can find his Tai-Ou_,: she thought.

She recalled very well how deeply she had worried about getting money for food or finding a way to defend herself against youma and bandits, and how difficult it had always seemed to be to start a fire to even keep warm without some of the modern tools she took for granted.

Yuka pulled the duffle bag she used for her after school escrima classes out from under her bed and dumped the contents out and refilled it with useful things like water bottles and zippo lighters. Anyhting that she could think of that she would have desperately liked to have the last time she was in the other world.

:_That should about do it_,: she thought to herself as she quickly dressed herself in a pair of durable jeans, hiking shoes, a cotton shirt and a poly-pro hoodie over it.

She'd had to pack in a hurry because she didn't know how long the storm was going to last and she still had to get Kaname out of bed, sneak him out of the house. Sneaking out of her own house wasn't much of a problem, she lived on her own to attend her expensive school so all she had to do was open her window, sneak out onto the roof and shimmy down a tree. It was a short jog to the place where Kaname lived and she spent a few minutes in the rising wind, casing the place for a way to get in undetected. Yuka looked around back and discovered a way to get on the roof, there was a tool-shed next to the chain-link fence that separated their yard from the neighbors yard and that tool-shed was only a few feet shorter than the roof of their house.

:_Lucky I'm an athletic kind of girl_,: she thought dryly to herself.

Wary of time passing, she quickly shimmied up the fence, walked carefully across the cheap tin roof of the toolshed, slid up onto the shingled roof of the house and walked carefully across the slanted surface over to kaname's window.

:_Ah, and fortune smiles yet again, those gods from the other realm must have some pull over here_,: she thought as she discovered that Kaname slept with his window cracked. She pushed it the rest of the way open and slowly let herself down onto the surface of his desk.

She heard him moan softly in his sleep, as if in protest, and he tossed restlessly. He struggled with the blanket as if wrestling with a demon, and tried to struggle away from the creature plaguing his dreams. Yuka was about to go over there and wake him up when he suddenly jolted awake, sitting up straight in bed, his skin covered in sweat and his eyes wide with terror. He was shaking and panting and when he saw her form crouched there in the shadows he looked about to scream.

"Shhhh!" she shushed him harshly and desperately.

"It's just me!" she hissed.

"Y-Yuka? What are you doing here? And in the middle of the night?" he asked her, clearly still shaken.

She debated about exactly what to say. And decided to redirect it for now.

"You had a nightmare?"

"Y-Yeah, a really bad one. It was terrifying. There were these creatures in them all yelling at me, and when I tried to run away the kept following me and they wouldn't leave me alone."

"They're trying to get you to go back to your duty," Yuka muttered feeling a little sorry for Taiki's protectors.

"Huh?" he asked cluelessly.

"Nevermind that now, we have to go."

"What are you talking about, it's the middle of the night!"

"Shh! she hissed at him again, drawing a finger over her lips and glaring him into silence. She could be scary and intimidating despite her size when she wanted to be. Kaname shut up.

"Come on, get dressed. Wear something warm," she commanded him, prodding him out of his bed and then rummaging through his closet for extra clothes. She settled on a plain, durable pair of pants three warm-looking shirts and extra socks. She debated about adding in the rain poncho and decided it would be better for him to have it and not need it than need it and not have it and added that to the top of the pack.

"Don't wear your school shoes, those will never last you, put those hiking boots in the bottom of your closet on. Do they fit?"

"Y-yes, a gift from father for-"

"Nevermind, hurry up," she urged impatiently.

Kaname obediently complied. Yuka mentally shook her head at that, it was good for her now, but someday the boy was going to have to grow a spine. He couldn't be half of a throne if he didn't know how to speak up.

"Why are you here? You're not supposed to be here. If you get caught-"

"I know, she said flatly. "I'm here to get you out of this place and back where you belong."

"What? I don't under-"

"Quiet now," she cautioned him, pulling, pushing and nagging him up onto his desk and out of his window.

Despite his obvious misgivings he complied with her orders and trustingly followed her out onto the roof. Yuka shut the window and wiped down the ledge for prints as an afterthought. She guided him across the roof, and down to the ground then across the lawn, out the gate and towards the pier.

"Where are we going?" Kaname asked her, sounding nervous.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Yuka replied. "But for now, we're going to the pier."

"Why are we going there in the middle of the night?" Kaname asked next.

"Because this is your only chance," Yuka said cryptically, indeed the wind had gone from a shush in the trees to an anticipatory murmur and she could hear the distant growl of thunder off to the west.

Kaname paused and looked at her for a long searching minute then his gave focused inward for a long, shocked moment, after which his expression changed to one of disbelief.

"I just heard-" he said, gasping.

"You heard a voice from another person coming from inside of you," Yuka surmised. "A voice you've only heard in your dreams until now."

She might not have gotten the role of the heroine in the story, but at the very least she could be the protector and the guide for the real hero. That was a good role, a short one, and dear god she hoped she didn't end up dying tragically, but it was still a good role.

"The voice you heard belongs to your shirei, I believe she said its name was Sanshi."

"Who said, what?" Kaname questioned, clearly utterly bewildered. "What's a shi-whatsit?"

"I'm not sure exactly, I've only head of them in passing. I saw Keiki's briefly, but as I understand it, they're sort of like mutant nursemaids."

Kaname blinked at her and said

"Boy, she really didn't like that."

Yuka smiled briefly and urged him on faster, there were no trains running this late so she was taking every shortcut she knew to get him there on foot. Kaname tried to continue to question her, but soon needed all of his breath for running in order to keep up with her. They reached the coastline just as the storm started up in earnest, the lightning was still a ways off, but the waves were already crashing over the breakers and nearly up to where they stood in the street.

"We should go home," Kaname urged her. "You'll get in-"

"You are going home," Yuka cut him off. "I know this is a lot to take in all at once and you have no real reason to believe me, but your whole life here has been a lie. You weren't born n this world, you weren't even supposed to be here."

Kaname gasped at her, looking terribly hurt. Yuka hit her forehead against her hand and, frustrated, said

"I didn't mean it how that came out sounding! Kaname, I'm here to help you. I meant that you're not supposed to be here in this world with that stupid family of yours, you have a greater destiny waiting for you somewhere else."

"Y-You're crazy!" Kaname said.

He didn't really sound like he meant it though and for him to make an accusation like that off-hand was a testament to how very off balance he was. What he'd said had been partly meant as an insult as well as a statement of fact and Kirin did not use insults. To them, words were a kind of violence as well, and they always chose the ones that would do good rather than harm.

"You've built up this world inside your head and now you actually think it's real and-"

A particularly loud bolt of lightning struck near the water and the waves, which until now had been moving frantically towards the shore, started to change direction. A glowing whirlpool started to take shape in front of them. Kaname backed up and instinctively turned towards her, shivering, ducking into Yuka's arms as though she could fend off the glowing abyss.

"Yuka! I'm scared! Let's go back, please!" Kaname begged.

She felt bad for him, she really did. Over the time she'd spent together with him Yuka had genuinely grown to like the quiet pacifist. If he never said two words more than necessary the words he did say were always effective and even though he was aloof from people he was never ever unkind. He was sweet. He couldn't fight or defend himself so Yuka had taken it upon herself to do that part. As a result she had come to see herself as being sort of his protector and guardian. She admired his intellectual brilliance but at the same time was exasperated by his utter unworldliness. She felt her protective, almost maternal, instinct rear up at the thought of handing him the pack she'd made and dumping him down that hole to do whatever it was he was supposed to do over there without a friend in the world.

:_I can't send him out into that big scary world all on his own, something's going to eat him! Or some bandit's going to kidnap him and try to sell him_.: Yuka thought in dismay.

Kaname wouldn't know the first thing about taking care of himself, he couldn't cook (or eat meat for that matter) he didn't know how to start a campfire or defend himself. He fainted at the sight of blood, what was he going to do if he got into a fight? He was going to surrender that was what he was going to do. She didn't even want to think of what that world over there would do to someone that was as docile as he was.

:_But this could well be his only chance to go back home_,: she thought desperately.

She had to send him back, it was his destiny. He was a kirin, he didn't belong here and his kingdom needed him!

"Kaname, you mustn't be scared okay?" Yuka said, pushing him back a little so he could look into her face. "This is supposed to happen, this is where you are supposed to go, alright? This will take you where you belong. Remember, your name is not Kaname Takasoto, your name is Taiki, the Kirin of Tai."

"..." Kaname stared at her in open mouthed shock.

"When you get over there, go to the kingdom of Kei and try to speak to the Queen, her name is Youko-"

"Wait that's the name of-" Kaname recognized.

"Tell her you are the Tai kirin and you're looking for your king," Yuka overid him. "If they don't believe you because you can't transform or you can't get in right away, bribe a guard or a court official to send her a note written in this worlds writing. Tell her that Yuka Sugimoto sent you and-"

The wind by this point had picked up to typhoon speeds and she was nearly bent over trying to fight it and shouting over the storm. Kaname was having none of her urging him any closer to that whirlpool. He clung around her waist and dug his heels in, Yuka really did not see how she was supposed to extricate herself from his grasp. Still, will he or nil he, they drew closer to the brink.

"Yuuukaaaa!" he wailed like a child. "I'm scared!"

"I know," she said helplessly.

Really, what else could she say? She still remembered her first trip across the two worlds and she'd been terrified the whole way down. It couldn't be any better for him, who was probably experiencing flashes from his first (probably terrifying) trip in addition to being stranded out in the middle of a storm.

She abruptly made an executive decision. She knew deep down that if she just pushed him into the hole and walked away she'd spend the rest of her life wondering about him. She'd probably play over and over in her mind all of the horrible things that could have happened to him without someone to look out for him. She couldn't just leave him alone and helpless without anyone to defend him or make certain he had a friend.

"If you want something done right, you must do it yourself," she muttered, ignoring the pang of guilt she felt over going against her promise to Kyouko to stay in that world, get married and have ten kids. After all, once she was sure Taiki was okay, there was no reason why she couldn't come back... right?

"I wanna go back to my room," Kaname said, sounding maybe half his physical age.

He clung tightly to her waist as any child would cling to his mother when faced with something so frightening.

"You can't go back," Yuka said firmly. "The only way for you is forward. Don't worry, I'm right here for you. As long as you still need me I won't leave your side."

And with that, she secured her travel pack and weapons on her back, wrapped her arms tightly around Kaname, and tipped them both into the void.

* * *

**YAAAY! Update! Sorry I took so long, I've been moving and haven't had my internet up for a while. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and please look forward to more to come.**


	4. Interlude I

**Interlude I **

**(Warning: this mini-fic takes place before the events of The Shore of The Labyrinth, when the previous king of Tai is still alive. It has some small mention of some of the events featured in that story but most of this is my own speculation. Enjoy!)  
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"A fine day for a hunt eh?" General of the Royal Palace Guard of the Left, Ansen said, turning with a sharp smile of anticipation to his fellow general, Gyousou. "Although I'll wager you weren't expecting to be part of the entertainment at the celebration thrown in your honor."

"If one must spend a day in useless revelry, at least I will not be bored to tears by it," was the stoic, white-haired general's reply.

"That's typical of you. You're no fun, _governor_," Ansen replied, giving him a hearty slap on the back (which failed to stagger him, to the General Ansesn's disappointment). Gyousou shot his fellow general a sour look for his levity.

"You don't take time out to enjoy the finer things in life!" continued the General of the Left, Ansen. "Here we are, a great day ahead of us, surrounded by fine women no less, and you'd rather fuss over the extravagance of the food and drink."

"If the court enjoyed a little less of the "finer things in life" as you say, the treasury would not be currently dwindling down to nothing while we feast, and I would not have been sent to Tetsui to seize taxes from already overworked people."

"Well then," Ansen said with a sigh and a roll of his eyes. "In the province that the king just awarded you with, you're free to run it however you like."

"I intend to," Gyousou replied seriously as he buckled on the fine new blade that he had just been presented with in commemoration for a series of bouts against the Ever-King of En. The commemoration blade had been presented to him during his inauguration as the new governor of Saku Province.

At the West Gate that led to the wide staircase that wound its way down the tall, steep mountain holding the Royal Palace of the Kingdom of Tai, Whitejewel Palace, above the Sea of Clouds, there was already a royal retinue mounted up. The King, naturally, was at the head of the line. His generals and his ministers both had tried their best to talk their king out of risking his own safety by coming along on a hunt for an exceedingly dangerous youma, but he would not hear of being left out of the main event at a celebration he was holding.

"With any luck, the beast will have gone to ground for the day and his Majesty will grow tired of looking for it and come back home, and let us do our jobs," Gyousou said with a rare note of optimism.

"Why that sounded almost like you think his Royal Majesty would be more of a hindrance than a help," Ansen said with heavy irony.

Gyousou remained silent to the comment, but it was known among the military that the civilian king was far better suited to his palace pleasures than being out in the wild chasing down demons.

"I think it only a good thing that we're not likely to find anything but the nearest village with a circus like this following behind us," Gyousou finally said when he had taken a moment to really take in the enormity of what his royal majesty considered "absolutely necessary" for when going on a short hunt.

Ansen and Gyousou both would have simply packed their weapons, some dried food rations for later in case they did not find any food in the area, a single change of clothes, and perhaps a tarp to make a shelter with if they could not find one (all of which could be rolled into a bed-roll and tucked on the saddle behind them) and mounted up for the hunt. His Royal Majesty had brought winged scent-dogs (and their handlers three), falcons and their handlers, several persons to carry his weapons and armor, and that was the most _sensible_ of the things he had included for hunting. There were more than three winged beasts loaded down with what looked like a miniature cloth palace; a palace which required a small army of servants to set-up and maintain it, as it came with a portable kitchen to prepare food with (complete with kitchen staff of five). It also came with furniture (_foldable_ furniture… but nonetheless, furniture).

"A brazier," Gyousou muttered. "He brought a brazier with him."

"That he did," Ansen replied. "And look, it comes with a scullery maid to handle the coal!"

"It is summertime," Gyousou pointed out unnecessarily.

"You never know, there could be a bit of nip in the air," Ansesn grinned.

"The only nip there will be," Gyousou said with belabored patience. "Will be when the drakh we are supposed to be hunting makes snacks of his majesty's supply train. I have outfitted _armies_ with less personnel than this!"

"Disposable decoys?" Ansen suggested cheerfully.

"I will remind you that these civilians are under our protection," Gyousou said flatly.

"Spoilsport."

Gyousou refrained from saying that his comrade's comments could have been considered witty, if Gyousou didn't suspect that his fellow general was partly serious. Ansen, while an effective leader and an excellent strategist, was not known for his vast sympathy for the civilians he was nominally supposed to be protecting.

The newly appointed governor of Saku Province suppressed a sigh at the sight of his king's baggage train and mounted his suuguu, Keito. The beast gave a few restive movements under him either catching on to the tension in the camp, or simply testing her nominal new master's reign over her (she hadn't been tamed for very long). Gyousou checked her adroitly and waited for the signal from his liege to move out.

The winds were fair that day and the party moved along well for one of its size though Gyousou could certainly have moved far more quickly and efficiently to put down the youma if it had just been him and a select few of his men. There were many of his officers in particular that he was grooming for positions in his new administration.

Tai's current king was a deft hand at administration and always had been, but the imperial court was beginning to fray around the edges a bit. Officials were starting to take bribes, and there was evidence that many of the one's closest to the king were ignoring the rules of appointing promising students who had passed their imperial exams to positions within the court bureaucracy, and instead were simply giving court appointments to family members or the children of nobles and officials they wished to curry favors from. In short, the ship of state was beginning to take on water and Gyousou knew that something needed to be done to keep it from sinking entirely. Why not set up the court to run itself during an interregnum? There were plenty of perfectly capable officials from within the ranks that could keep matters in check far more efficiently than most civilians handled the trick.

The cavalcade flew for an hour or two to the place where they had heard the reports of a sighting of the massive youma, and their king ordered a halt to make camp in preparation for actually going on the hunt (probably so he would have a nice toasty tent and some dancing girls to come back to in an hour when he got tired). In the course of his very long and decorated military career, Gyousou Saku had seen countless numbers of military camps put up, there was a particular way that they were all organized to get the maximum efficiency for food preparation and dispersion, mandatory exercise and drill, sleeping accommodations, efficient muster and deploy and waste disposal. Each area was planned to within an inch so that all soldiers would know at all times where his commanding officer was and how to do his assigned camp chores without any hiccups in the efficient setting up and running of a small canvas city.

:Civilians!: Gyousou Saku thought in dismay as he watched the baggage train try to set up a camp for their king.

No-one knew what their assigned functions were or who to ask to get something done and they were all running around like chickens in a yard asking "who's doing this?" and "I thought you were doing that," and "no, don't do that!"

Ansen stood back along the sidelines next to Gyousou watching the temporary court scurry about like ants over an overturned anthill and achieving precisely nothing. After a moment, in a deadpan voice, he asked

"Do you think anyone would notice if I killed a few of them?"

Gyousou gave the question a moment's consideration

"That depends, how many?"

"Maybe a dozen?" he suggested hopefully.

"Oh, I'm sure they'd notice," Gyousou said with a mock sigh of regret.

"How about five?" Ansen replied.

"Go for it."

They shared a chuckle over it and by mutual agreement decided they'd rather just dispense with the "making camp" nonsense and go find the creature themselves.

"We'll just say that we're going to flush it out so his majesty can kill it properly," Ansen said.

"I have no intention of putting our king in peril by letting him face a beast that he is woefully unprepared to defeat," Gyousou said.

"And nor do I, but the _official_ story is that we're only going out to track it down… however, if it should happen to attack us and we wind up killing it in self-defense, why, who is to blame us for that? It is _your_ party, after all."

"And I shall kill if I want to," Gyousou affirmed as a tacit way of sealing their gentleman's agreement to conspire to keep their king from getting his royal self killed.

They bowed at the small open sided pavilion where their liege sat on a pile of embroidered silk cushions while a servant girl massaged his feet. They presented their cover story to the king and were given leave to depart to find the drakh for him.

Rather than fly aimlessly about hoping to catch a glimpse of the beast, the two generals had taken a list of all of the reported sighting and attacks by the creature that had come in and triangulated the sightings on a map to come up with a pretty good idea of just where it was making its lair based on what direction the eye-witnesses saw it flying off to after it had made its attack.

They estimated the creature to be lairing itself somewhere within the foothills (or possibly higher in the mountains) of south-central Tai, just before the mountain range aptly named the Dragon's Teeth. Much of Tai was rocky terrain, but the grey sheer stone crags that jutted up in the south of Tai were particularly sharp and steep, looking very much like fangs of an enormous maw trying to bite into the sky.

"Keep a sharp eye out," Gyousou cautioned his comrade in the hunt just as they mounted. "The Dragon's Teeth are the main stomping grounds of the Foresworn."

"Oh _them_… are they still around?" Ansen queried in mild interest. "I thought they'd been hunted down and stomped out centuries ago."

"Their numbers are very small," Gyousou answered. "Just enough to be a pain in the side of the local guard units really, but they linger, still, after so many centuries."

"Those are the crazies that still worship the Barbarian God and the Four Guardian Beasts right? The ones who seek to restore the world to the chaos before the Emperor of Heaven reformed the world to the Twelve Kingdoms?"

"I confess I do not see the appeal either, perhaps the system is not always perfect, but it is certainly better than the chaos and corruption of the Ancient Days. Still I suppose there must always be those that are unwilling to see the good in the world as it exists and wish to change things in the hope that the new order will be better."

"I doubt we'll have much trouble from a bunch of skin-wearing savages with crude stone weapons," Anses scoffed. "But as you say I'll keep a lookout, perhaps one of their women will be fine to look at when she's been bathed."

Gyousou refrained from rolling his eyes at his companion's comment and set out for the hunt.

Gyousou and Ansen had just started their search from the sky and were perhaps a third of the way into the foothills leading up to the Teeth when a great shrieking cry that sounded much like the screech of metal being rent apart tore through the air. As one, their heads shot around to scan the direction it came from. Ahead of them, slightly to the left, they heard another cry echo through the sharp jagged clifftops and jutting crags of the mountains below. They signed each other that they would proceed, but cautiously.

They needn't have bothered with caution, for a gap in the clouds in front of them revealed the sight of a great winged beast wheeling its lazy way through the air before them, slightly to the right of where they had thought he would be. The steady beat and glide if its massive wings against the air showed its oddly sinuous grace in the way it moved. The long body, with its long, arching spined neck and tail gave it a slightly serpentine cast as it glided and wheeled with seemingly effortless ease on the thermals of the air. It was surprisingly beautiful to look at, if one could discount the fact that it was capable of wiping out entire villages in a single hour.

Gyousou Saku was not a timid man, but a long moment to take in the sheer enormity of the monster did give him a moments pause to consider. The king had come along on the hunt, instead of leaving it to his armies as usual, because he was the only one who possessed the last shard of the Kings Sword.

Every Kingdom in their world had its own set of special relics; among them was always a sword (or some other weapon) with mystical properties. These celestial weapons, said to be granted by the Emperor of Heaven, existed for the sole purpose of dealing with the youma that cropped up in the world. While a youma could be killed dead enough by most common means (some were more difficult to kill than others) only a King's Sword could disintegrate the youma's spirit and keep its evil from reforming into another fiend. In this particular case, ancient knowledge held that the hide of a drakh could not be pierced by an ordinary weapon, therefore, only a king could kill the rare youma. The problem with that for Tai in particular was that Tai's Royal Sword had been severed in a great battle many centuries ago. Numerous smiths had tried to repair the blade over the years but had found it impossible to meld the pieces back together again. Even had they managed the feat, a King's Sword had magic granted by the Heavens bound into its blade, even if the smith could restore the physical sword, the magic in it was lost. There was one final shard near the hilt that contained a fraction of the sword's old power and it was that piece that the Peace Kings had used to disperse the evil spirits of the youma over the centuries since the blade's sundering. A youma of such legendary size and ferocity as the drakh would need to have its great evil dispersed by the king's shard.

Gyousou was about to sign to Ansen that they should try to circle around and scout to see if there was a way to take it out without having to engage it when Ansen suddenly spurred his mount forward and charged toward the beast head on. Gyousou mentally cursed his comrade's rash and impetuous action even as he motioned his suuguu to move up higher to gain some altitude in order to hopefully effectively cover Ansen as he moved in. While Ansen moved in on the maw of the creature Gyousou drew out his bow and strung it, then nocked an arrow, hoping to get the creature in its mouth before it could burn his foolish comrade into a crisp with the flaming fumes it breathed out.

It was like watching a mouse attack a cat, judging by the relative sizes of Ansen on his own suuguu, and the drakh he was charging at. The drakh beat the air hard with its leathery wings which, now that gyousou saw them more closely, had a faintly opalescent sheen to the overall reddish color of them, it shimmered softly in the light as though dusted lightly with gold and the reddish tone seemed to shift to copper and bronze and back changing by the way the light struck it. The drakh rose slightly, sighting Ansen directly ahead of it and reared its head back a little. Gyousou's brow furrowed a bit in puzzlement, wondering what the beast was going to do next. They received only a few seconds warning, as something that looked like a red jewel hidden behind some sort of membrane on its chest glowed violently to life, flaring up like a brilliant ember. A split second later, the drakh opened its mouth and breathed out a long streamer of golden fire straight at Ansen. The general dodged abruptly out of the way, his beast barrel-rolling to one side. The drakh swooped past Ansen, snapping at him on its way by. Gyousou held his fire, deciding to let the beast concentrate it attention on one target while he man with the height advantage waited for a better opening to line up his shot. The drakh swooped around and Gyousou thought that it intended to chase after the other general, but instead it seemed to loose interest in chasing its prey and wheeled up on a thermal and back toward the teeth of the mountain.

Ansen pulled his kijuu up beside Gyousou and shouted over the whistle of the wind.

"That was a close one, but we know now how it attacks, let's follow it and see where it is making its lair!"

Gyousou nodded his agreement. It would perhaps be wiser to take the beast on the ground, if they attacked from above they had a greater chance of pinning it.

They tailed it, both guiding their kijuu to keep the great youma from realizing that it had two someones who had taken an interest in it. After a long, slow glide the beast came to land in a small pocket valley nestled in between two larger mountain peaks, shielded from view from below by the elevation of the sharply jagged mountains and almost entirely from above by a trick of shadow. Gyousou pulled his kijuu back suddenly and ducked into the cool damp cover of a nearby cloud when he spotted something else besides a drak's lair that was hidden within the little pocket valley. He took cover in time, but his companion, it turned out, was not so lucky.

Ansen, it appeared, was so intent on hunting down the drakh and killing it in order to gain a fame that would be equal to his comrade's (who had just been promoted to governor due to his recent successes) that he had been heedless of the fact that he had swooped perhaps a little too close to the camp below. Gyousou would have been willing to swear up until that point that there would be no possible way for an arrow to be shot from a bow and reach up that far, much less manage to hit its target with such shocking accuracy, but it happened. Ansen was struck on the outside of his right shoulder with force enough to near knock him from his saddle. His kijuu was not so well trained and bucked and jerked beneath him, throwing him further off-balance. Gyousou turned Keito to go to the aid of his comrade when Ansen tipped over the side and fell into the air.

"What the-!" Gyousou murmured to himself in near breathless shock.

One of the primitive buckskin-clad savages from below took a running leap off a nearby cliff then seemed to… _bounce_ on mid-air, leaping higher up in a manner that Gyousou wasn't certain he could credit.

:_Perhaps I hit my head_?: he wondered.

The Repudiate intercepted Ansen's fall. A small whirlwind kicked up from out of no where and surrounded the two of them, letting them down gently on the ground. Gyousou pulled out his bow and reached for an arrow, determined to rescue his friend from his rescuer but realized that the pair of them were out of range. Another wind kicked up, bringing in a deep fog and a cloud of dust. Gyousou was forced to wait until it had cleared, and when it did, Ansen and the Repudiate were no-where to be seen.

:_Trouble_,: Gyousou sighed to himself.

He didn't always get along with the General of the Left, and he had some serious doubts about the man's moral integrity sometimes, but the two of them had been through much together, and Gyousou would never abandon a comrade in need.

Gyousou brought Keito in to land behind another spiny mountain top, more like a sharp spire of rock towering into the sky, nearby. The position would give him two advantages; the advantage of height relative to the base camp of his enemies, and cover from below. He should be able to spy on them from above without being detected then sneak in under cover of darkness to rescue his comrade. In the dimming light of the westering sun, Gyousou made his cautious way toward the enemy camp, keeping a wary eye out for traps, possible ambush sites and enemy sentries. An hour later he was within eyeshot of the camp, he found a small niche in between two rocks, hidden from view from below by a strangely verdant screen of shrubbery (in an area that was otherwise entirely bare wind-swept stone).

The camp was a crude affair of seven leather tents circled around a central fire pit with a natural spring of snowmelt water nearby to draw water from. Aside of the foreign nature of the Repudiates garb (all made of animal skins and furs and fastened by crude bone buttons) and the odd ways they painted (and apparently tattooed) their faces, it took Gyousou a long few minutes of observation to figure out what it was that seemed so odd about them. After a while he realized that there was no sign of any material that manufactured by the hands of civilization anywhere within the camp. The weapons they wielded were spears, bows and clubs but no swords made of metal, there were not even any metal knives (which to him seemed really odd) but the knives they used were all made of flint or volcanic glass.

Right next to the fire pit in the center of camp, Ansen was bound hand and foot by leather thongs and bound further to a tall wooden post that was carved with strange animal-like figures. Though he was bound, it surprised Gyousou to notice that they were not mistreating him; in fact, one of the women of the village had brought a dish of food from the nearby firepit over to him and was feeding him and apparently _talking_ to him.

:_It seems as though they are conversing_!: Gyousou realized a moment later when Ansen apparently made a polite reply to something the young woman had said.

:_He had seriously better not be trying to get her out of her clothes_!: Gyousou thought to himself.

It would be just like the man to find himself in a life or death situation, surrounded on all sides by enemies, and taking the time out to try to seduce a comely woman.

The two of them conversed for a long while, and Gyousou decided that he should give his fellow general the benefit of the doubt and figure that he was probing the young woman for weaknesses in the camps defenses so he could escape later, or trying to gain information about the movements of their people so that he could come back with an army and wipe them out for good. Still… something about the way they interacted put Gyousou's back up, he didn't like where it was leading.

He was about to slide back out and go around to circle the camp when the spindly branches of the bushes he had been hiding in for the last few hours suddenly came alive around him! Gyousou found himself inexplicably pinned down by what should have been nothing more than passive vegetation.

"Halt, intruder!" a woman's voice, rough from the smoke of a campfire, resounded strongly in the night air. "We know you're there, and we have known that you have been hiding there for the last many hours. You cannot fool the original owners of the Dragon's Teeth within their home ground, this land has been our and our ancestors from before the sky was sundered and remade."

Gyousou found himself further entangled by the branches of the shrubs around him, as though the trees themselves were fighting him! While he struggled against the greenery, three of the Foresworn tribers surrounded him, two with arrows knocked but undrawn and the third with a long spear of wood. When one of the Foresworn stepped forward and sat on his back, the tree inexplicably stilled and loosened its grip on him. Gyousou could only theorize that the tree was some form of heretofore unknown youma, subdued by these strange, savage people. Gyousou found himself quickly bound by tight leather thongs and force marched into the center of their camp by his captors then bound to the post beside his companion.

"Glad you could join me, some rescue by the way," Ansen said as soon as their captors had finished binding them.

"It's the thought that counts."

"I'll remember you said that when they're feeding you to the drakh then," Ansen replied dryly.

"Is that what they do?" Gyousou asked curiously. "They kidnap innocent villagers from the towns nearby and feed them to their pet youma? Gruesome."

"Not quite," Ansen said. "From what I could gather, they worship the drakh and some of the other, more powerful, youma as sort of "relatives" of their god-spirits. They think that the original Four God-Beasts that guarded the lands in the Ancient Days are still here in some form and that the youma are part of that form. The more powerful the youma, the closer it is to the form of the God-Beast."

"They worship _youma_?" Gyousou said incredulously. "That's crazy."

"Don't be so quick to scoff my friend," Ansen replied. "There is some small grain of truth to their belief. Your previous position didn't grant you sight of it, but look over to your left."

Curious, Gyousou did so and saw something carved into the side of the mountain. It was a small rounded niche with strange pictures carved into it. Directly to the fore of the niche was a large stone pedestal raised to about waist high on an average man. There was something on top of the pedestal, but Gyousou couldn't quite decide what it was his eyes were looking at. The closest he could come was a glassy stone that was carved into a multisided orb-like shape, with strange sigils carved into all of the sides and inlaid with some thing that gleamed softly in the moonlight. He noticed, to his mystification, that there seemed to be a number of sigils missing from it and then realized that the facets of the multisided stone were actually comprised of many smaller stones, each with a sigil on it, fused together somehow.

"What is that thing?" Gyousou asked curiously.

"That…" Ansen said. "Is a very good question."

"Whatever it is, if the Repudiates hold it in high regard, it can't be good."

"How do you know that? You've never even talked to one of them."

"I've had contact enough with them when I served to the south and west of here," Gyousou replied shortly. "Repudiates once raided a village that my king had sent me and my men to guard when I was still a lieutenant under Captain Banlai. They nearly wiped the whole place out; burned down every structure they could fire their flaming arrows into, took whatever food and supplies they could grab and murdered any of the villagers who stood against their attack. They have every opportunity to live peacefully and they choose not to. They are bandits no matter their beliefs; one who murders the innocent for their gods is no different to me than one who does the same for simple greed."

A young woman dressed in the same, slightly crude leathers, as the rest of the people in the village paused at Gyousou words and walked over.

"I think you should have kept your mouth shut," Ansen muttered to him. "You may find you live longer."

"There is a difference between a captive and a prisoner," Gyousou replied. "A captive knows he bides but for a time and remains true to his own integrity no matter what enemy he faces, a prisoner bows to the power above him to save his skin at the cost of his pride."

"Better a live prisoner than a dead captive I say, the prisoner always has a chance to get away, but the fool who opens his mouth and provokes his enemies will not live to fight another day."

"You speak bravely, white-haired one," the young woman said crouching down so she could get a closer look at him.

She was a youth, perhaps in her early twenties, slight and thin, with the wiry whipcord strength that came from a life of constant activity. Her movements also spoke of a certain amount of training in fighting, but there was an odd cast to her expression, the way she positioned herself, as if she were able to move about in perfect synchronicity with her surroundings. Her face had a sort of fae look to it, like she saw more deeply into the world than he was able to.

"And not entirely without truth," she admitted. "I will not lie and say that our people have never committed any wrongs on our path to bring the world back into the proper order. But let me ask you this… if the will of Heaven is so all encompassing, how is it possible that there are those which fall outside of it? I will tell you. It is because the world has fallen out of balance and remained out of balance for many centuries and _that_ is because the Emperor of Heaven rules over this world. The very fact that the Emperor of Heaven wields so much power in the world goes against the True Balance. Our world has swung too far onto the side of Light, with the Emperor of Heaven arranging every detail as he sees fit, there will be an equal and opposing reaction to this imbalance someday. If matters are not put right the world will one day be consumed by darkness. The world has fallen out of True, and the True Balance must be restored, or all will be lost when the pendulum reverses its swing."

"So… you believe that… your actions are in the best interests of the world? That by sowing chaos and destruction, you're saving us?" Gyousou said in disbelief.

The young woman nodded earnestly, clearly believing with all of her being everything she was telling them.

"It is to prevent a greater catastrophe in the future that we must act now," she said, the light of fanaticism shining in her eyes. "We are not deliberately malicious, not those of us who are true believers anyway, but we cannot let anyone stand in the path of our quest to recover the key to restoring the balance that was lost. The True Balance."

"And for that you attack villages that are all but defenseless and murder people who have never offered you any harm?"

"Whether they know it or not, they were all sheltering a piece of the key. We need all of the pieces to fulfill our mission. So, while it is regrettable that they had to suffer, we cannot allow anything to stand in our way. They may never thank us, but that does not matter, once the True Balance is restored we will be content to know that the world is in our debt."

"You are all of you mad," Gyousou felt compelled to point out.

"It is alright if that is what you wish to think," the Repudiate woman said.

"How does your worship of the drakh fit into your beliefs about restoring the True Balance?" Ansen asked quickly, as if to head off any possible anger on the part of their enemy by plying her with a subject she was obviously deeply enamored with.

"The youma are outside of the Will of Heaven and can only be pulled into the light by a Kirin when it subdues one as one of its Shirei. This world, as it was originally laid out had four God-beasts at the cardinal directions, each in command of an element, each equal to the others, comprised equally of parts of darkness and parts of light, parts of order and parts of chaos, parts of law and parts of revolution. It is said that the Emperor defeated the original Balance of the world and imposed his own order, made of Law, and enforced it by those _he_ selected and put into place. He continues to uphold his view of perfection, staving off the parts of the world he dislikes by enforcing his own will through the puppets he has put into place, the king and the kirin. That is why the youma gather when the king loses the Way, they sense an opportunity to restore the True Balance and they hope to end the cycle of imposition by bringing down the false reign in its infancy. The more powerful the youma is, the harder it is to pull it into the light and the greater resistance it has to the false system put into place by an emperor who has overreached his office. Our reverence for the drakh is symbolic of our opposition to the False Balance and our will to fight the false order the Emperor of Heaven has imposed upon the world."

Gyousou could do nothing more than stare in shock mixed with pity for the poor deluded child, and note with a faint ironic feeling that she actually seemed to feel the same thing about him. She left a small wooden plate full of boiled mashed tuber nearby and went off to attend to some other camp duty.

"We're surrounded by lunatics. You know this, right?" he managed at last.

"What do you think that thing on their altar is, and why do they revere it so, I wonder," Ansen mused aloud, ignoring Gyousou's observation.

"I, for one, do not intend to hang about and find out," Gyousou replied.

"Come now, you can't tell me that you aren't at least a _little_ curious to know about what it is that they've spent so much time and energy gathering together over the years?"

"Not in the least and you shouldn't be either. Recall that they revere youma. _Youma_! For all we know they intend to express their reverence for the youma by offering us to it for dinner."

"I would more accurately say breakfast, considering that it seems to be well past dinner time."

"Well then let us be out of here before they decide to make it a midnight snack."

Any luxury of planning an escape that the Generals might have had was cut short when the camp all suddenly gathered together around the central fires and started beating their skin drums. Four figures wearing elaborately beaded feathered animal skin costumes with large, carved wood masks, and bearing a long rod with a strange glowing crystal at the top, stood in a ring around the fire each at a cardinal point. In the center of each of their intricately carved wooden mask-headdress was a rough gemstone that seemed to glow slightly with its own light. One figure wore green, another wore red, a third blue, and the last white. The drums beat slowly at first and the four figures moved through some slow ritual-like movements. The odd thing was that Gyousou could have sworn that the wind, which had been blowing in the opposite direction all day, stilled and began to gather around the figure in white, whirling in a small dust devil at the dancer's feet. A strange mist gathered wetly and the ground seemed to thump in rhythm of the dancer's feet, like a heartbeat Gyousou could feel through the soles of his feet. The fire in the center of the camp flared and climbed higher, urged on perhaps by the wind. Ansen watched the movements of the tribers with intense curiosity. Gyousou tried to ignore the strange shiver that ran up his back when the air around him abruptly felt thick, like the calm before a storm. The dancers moved through their mysterious pattern and came to a halt, arms upraised as if in entreaty at a last, emphatic thump of the drums.

"Hear us, Ye guardians of the True Balance," one Foresworn priest called out into the night. "We offer to you the flesh of these invading non-believers. Consume their spirits and grow stronger for the day when we unlock the Gate to the Palace of Heaven and storm the Usurper Emperor's citadel and restore the world to its true form!"

"That can't be good," Ansen muttered.

Indeed, not a moment later, the skin-clad warriors grouped together and descended on the two of them, expediently picking them up by the pole they had been bound back to back to, and carried them off to a bare, rocky cliff. The flat floor of the cliff face was littered with bones recognizable as belonging to humans, and even if the two Generals had not recognized the shape of the skulls, the armor and weapons (belonging to the soldiers of the Kingdom of Tai) would have given it away.

"Grow strong on the blood and souls of your enemies, Great Ones!" the leader of the Repudiates entreated a youma that Gyousou could neither hear nor see just then.

The pole that the two of them were bound to was stuck into the middle of a cairn of stones and more rocks were piled up around it to keep the base in place. Gyousou looked around and saw a large number of burned stumps sticking out of other cairns of stones. Clearly this was not the first time this had happened. With a final staccato beating of the skin drums, sounding a little more like a summoning to feast in Gyousou's ears, the tribe quit the area without a backward glance, leaving their "god" to its meal.

One did not become a General of the palace guard by shuffling papers. The two Generals were seasoned fighters, both of them having seen their share of battles and difficult situations. By mutual concordance the two of them immediately began to try to pull the pole out of the cairn by using their backs and legs as leverage. It was no good, though the pole should have slid out easily from the rocks, it was as if it had some how become fused with the stone and would not budge and inch. Likewise when they tried to wriggle it from side to side and loosen or break it that way.

"Now what?" Ansen muttered when they took a small break from their exertions to try to figure out another way to get out of their bind.

"Loosen the cords," Gyousou suggested readily.

"No good," Ansen said a moment later. "I tried it earlier as well. They wet the cords down when they bound us, the knots and bindings only tighten as the cord dries out."

"Well," Gyousou said with philosophic stoicism. "If we are not eaten by the drakh, then we shall suffocate when these bindings finish drying out."

Already the cords had constricted to painful tightness, like great pythons smothering their prey.

"I just love how you're always so cheerful and full of good news," Ansen replied.

Gyousou did not dignify the observation with a response, but instead tried to wriggle the bindings looser.

"Will you stop that?" Ansen snapped. "Every time you move, it gets tighter and I can barely breathe as it is."

Gyousou tried to heave a sigh, but barely managed a short puff.

"If you have another way out of this, I'm open to suggestions," he gritted.

"Relax, I got this one," Ansen said.

Gyousou restrained a glare since the intended recipient was tied behind him and wouldn't be able to appreciate it. The moon rose a quarter of the way into the sky when there was a very soft, slight rustle of movement to their right. It appeared as though the woman stepped out of the shadows themselves, she had not been there, and then when he looked again, there she was.

"Are you unharmed?" she asked.

It was not the haughty woman who had spoken to them earlier about the True Balance and their fanatics dream of remaking the world (and not allowing anything to stand in their way while they did so). Instead this was a woman much younger than the tribe's leader, perhaps about fourteen or fifteen. She had fed the Ansen his dinner earlier.

"Cutting things a little close here sweetheart," Ansen said smoothly.

The woman, well, _girl_ really, took out a rough stone knife and sawed through their damp bindings. Gyousou was relieved to take a deep breath as the cords slid free from around them.

"Remember your promise, warrior," the girl said to Ansen as she slit the cords binding his wrists and ankles as well. "I will bring myself and the others to the base of the mountain after you are done here."

"My friend and I will be sure you're treated fairly," Ansen assured her. "Any advice on how to kill that thing?"

"The god-beast has no weaknesses, its hide is made of armor, its talons are sharp enough to claw into stone, and its teeth can bite through the trunk of a tree… _and_ it breathes flame. If all this were not enough, it flies, I wonder how you propose to defeat it."

"Oh, I'll think of something," Ansen said breezily. "Thanks for the help woman, and ah…" Ansen leered over at her. "I'll be seeing you around."

Gyousou rolled his eyes and force-marched his womanizing fellow general off in the opposite direction of the enemy camp as the Foresworn-girl melded back into the shadows.

"What exactly did you promise her?" Gyousou demanded once he was reasonably sure the girl was out of earshot.

"Seems that not everything is as utopian as it seems here in Fanatic's Paradise,"Ansen said by way of reply. "Turns out that there's some sort of ritual offering to the god-beast every year…"

"You mean… like an actual virgin sacrifice?" Gyousou said incredulously.

"Sort of. The way I understand it, the "offerings" usually volunteer because the ones that come back have some sort of great power bestowed on them. Those are the ones who become the "Chosen Ones" which seem to be the elite warriors in their society. Everyone thinks they have some kind of special power granted by the god-beast."

"Hmmm…" Gyousou said dubiously.

On the surface it sounded like the crazed ramblings of a cult of lunatics, but even as he prepared to dismiss it as such his mind played back to some of the odd happenings that he had witnessed earlier that day, events and actions that did not have any real plausible explanation otherwise.

"Well it turns out that not every person who offers themselves to the god beast comes back covered in glory. There are some who simply disappear. That girl's older sister was one of them, she and some of the other young children of the tribe are scared stiff that the drakh is gonna eat them instead of Choose them. She asked me for asylum for herself and the other littles that will follow her in exchange for her help getting free."

"If it is for those who are not yet of age to decide their own fate by Law, then it is certainly within allowable limits to move to protect the innocent," Gyousou replied with grudging approval.

Technically, Ansen had made a deal with the enemy. However, a minor, especially one held essentially under duress, was not subject to reprisal as an adult was.

"Oh, and I told them that we'd kill the drakh too," Ansen added.

"That is what we came for," Gyousou agreed as though it went without saying.

Ansen looked over at his fellow General as though he had lost his mind, while Gyousou checked on the sword that the girl had procured for him.

"You're planning on sticking around?" he said incredulously.

"Weren't you?" Gyousou inquired.

"No way in hell!" he shot back. "I was going to go back and gather my troops, arrest the village, sort them out and then muster the elites to come help me kill this thing. That's the only sensible way to destroy a drakh, especially one that has grown to this size and power by feasting on virgin flesh."

"You would turn your back and run away," Gyousou said with distaste.

"I'd strategically regroup," Ansen corrected. "Your pride alone will not kill that thing Saku. Be sensible about it."

"I will keep the beast distracted while you bring the army," Gyousou compromised. "If we loose this opportunity to beard the beast out here in the relative open while it has its energies concentrated on coming after me, we will only have to fight it again at a later time on its home ground and at a time when it can focus its full attention on destroying its enemies."

"I'll bring the armies, but you are a fool to remain behind," Ansen replied as he struck off in the opposite direction toward a path that would lead him down the mountain.

Gyousou did not reply to his fellow general's assertions but prepared himself for the fight ahead by examining the terrain around him. The cliff face that Gyousou and Ansen had been left tied out for the drakh's dinner on was mostly flat bare stone, but there were spots that would offer him cover; boulders and rock-formations jutting up out from the stone around him would form natural defense barriers to protect him from attack.

Littered in among the armor and bones of the drakh's former suppers were some weapons; spears, mostly, or swords, but Gyousou also saw the curved forms of bows and several partially filled quivers of arrows. One of the bow shafts was broken, and the other had no string, but that was easily taken care of by switching one from the other.

The general was just then beginning to form at strategy to harry the flying menace when the distant sound of a screech warned him of the impending presence of his quarry.

The thought of hunting the creature, taking him by surprise in the daylight from the back of his kijyuu (giving Gyousou the advantages of speed and mobility on the aerial battlefield) had been daunting enough… taking on the beast at night, when Gyousou's sight was limited to what was revealed by the light of the three-quarter-full moon, and on the ground (placing him at a distinct disadvantage when dealing with a flying youma who had a long-range attack) made even Gyousou pause to wonder if perhaps his fellow General had not been partly in the right to call him a fool.

:_It **must** have a weakness_,: Gyousou reasoned to himself. :_Everything has a weakness. It's simply a matter of figuring out what it is, and staying alive until I can discover it._:

Blotting out the stars and much of the light of the moon, the drakh was a contrast of dark shadow and pale moonglow against the larger back drop of the night as it glided in lazily for its meal. It hovered for a moment at the edge of the cliff-face, clearly looking for the usual set up it had become accustomed to when summoned to feed.

The drakh was _huge_. It had looked sizable when viewed from a distance and from the back of a kijyuu, but up close enough to hear the bellow-like rasp of its breath, the scraping sound of its claws on the stone as it landed on the cliff face, it seemed impossibly large.

:_I've seen boats that transport cargo that are smaller than that thing_!: Gyousou thought to himself revising his rough strategy and discarding three of his alternate plans as being unfeasible in the current situation.

Before he could overthink and second guess himself, Gyousou ran out of the place where he had been hiding himself. As he ran to the next spot of cover he had picked out, Gyousou pulled back the arrow he had readied and sent it whistling toward the drakh. It hit solidly on the flank of the beast and had no discernible impact whatsoever, except, of course, to make the drakh take a sudden interest in its next prospective meal. Gyousou ducked behind the cover just as there came a whooshing gust of furnace heat. The flames curled around him and licked at the edges of his hiding place, but the general remained relatively safe in the lee-shadow of the stone.

The air seemed to pound like a massive drum as the drakh leaped and pushed itself back into the sky, swooping around in the air nearby, intent on trying to incinerate its prey from a different angle. As soon as Gyousou had a clear venue, he lined up another shot as he pelted furiously for his next cover. The arrow hit this time on the underside of the drakh, but still had no effect. Unlike a snake or a lizard which had a relatively vulnerable underbelly, the drakh was armored underneath as well.

:_But that makes sense since it is an aerial creature, much of its prey and most fellow-predators will attack it from beneath_:.

Another blast of furnace heat licked the stone as Gyousou hunkered down within its protection. The sound of beating wings thundered nearby and he was forced to clap his ears to protect them from the sound of the drakh's screech of frustration as its prey eluded it once again. In reply, Gyousou popped around the side of the rock, took aim once again and fired another shot to probe his enemy for possible weak points. The arrow hit the beast on its long, sinuous neck and the drakh didn't even seem to notice it had been hit.

Gyousou noticed for the second time the clear membranous cavity in the direct center of the drakh's chest, right where the sternum would be on a man. It held a strange light, that flared brighter than an ember form a fire as the beast took a deep breath and let out a long stream of fire at the cairn of boulders Gyousou had sheltered himself behind. When Gyousou looked back at the creature the spot in its chest was dim as it beat the air with its wings to gain altitude.

:_That spot in it's chest, it flares up whenever the beast breathes its flames_!: Gyousou realized intuitively.

Hopeful now, the general hunkered down in behind the boulders again and watched the dark night sky for signs of enemy movement. The attack came almost without warning the next time. The drakh swooped down from above in near silence, breathing a large fountain of red fire at the place where Gyousou hid. Only a quick scramble and roll saved him from incineration, but even as he tucked and ducked into the shadows of a nearby cairn, he came to his knees, pulled an arrow back and fired directly at the glowing red target as the beast swooped by for another pass.

"Hah!" Gyousou couldn't help but exult as his shot hit directly where he'd aimed it. But his exultation was short-lived for the arrow bounced off from the armor protecting the glowing thing in its chest as if it were bouncing off armor. The wind of the drakh landing on the stone nearby kicked up dust, even as the tremor of impact made Gyousou, already on his knees, stagger slightly to steady himself against the reassuring solidity of the rock.

:_So, the glowing red thing is not a vulnerable point then_,: he thought in disappointment.

Of course it couldn't be _that_ easy.

:_But there's more than one way to skin a rat_,: Gyousou thought.

He put his fingers to his lips and blew a shrill whistle to catch the beasts attention. It snapped its head over to look at him, then reared back, taking a breath. The stone in its chest lit up a brilliant sunset-red as the drakh's neck extended to create a path of fire through the air. Gyousou ran directly at its face, turning at the last minute to race up a nearby cairn of boulders, the very same ones that he and Ansen had been tied to, which still had not only the pole sticking out of it, but the long length of leather cord bindings that had been used to restrain the two generals. Gyousou picked up one weighted end in passing whirling it quickly at his side and sending it snaking out in front of him as he threw himself directly at the long, triangular snout. He leaped off the top of the boulder and came down directly on top of the maw of the beast, landing astride it as though it were nothing more dangerous than a moving kijuu. The length of cord wound around the closed maw of the beast like a tether around a pole, snapping it shut and securing it that way.

The drakh whipped its head from side to side while Gyousou clung like a tick. He cross drew his sword from its sheath over his shoulder, reversed its grip and stabbed at one reddish-gold slit-pupiled eye. His stab struck home, finally having found a vulnerable point it slid cleanly into the naked flesh of the eye. Gyousou pulled out his blade and prepared to make a deeper thrust, hopefully all the way to the brain. Again his slight victory was short-lived. He had blinded the creature yes, but only in one eye. The beast, enraged with pain, gave a particularly sharp jerk of its head and flung Gyousou easily off his precarious perch. He was airborne just long enough to sheathe his blade and tuck into a ball and roll. Fortunately the beasts own injury distracted it from its quarry long enough for Gyousou to recover himself and find as new hiding spot.

:_Congratulations General_,: he thought grimly to himself. :_You've only just pissed it off_.:

Still as he watched the beast continue to jerk its head back and forth, clearly trying to shake off the bindings which, for a miracle, were staying in place and continuing to hold, Gyousou rearranged a new strategy as he saw the creature desperately begin to snuffle air in through its nostrils.

:_It cannot attack by flame, yes, but… it also cannot breathe well either_!: He realized with a dawning sense of elation as a new strategy occurred to him with the blinding speed that only seemed to come in the heat of battle.

If he could find a way to cut off its air completely, the creature would suffocate!

:_Weapons cannot pierce it's hide, but one need not land a piercing blow in order to crush its windpipe_!:

All he needed was something heavy enough to—

He cast quickly about, looking for something large and heavy that he could maneuver to either crush its snout or collapse its windpipe somehow.

There were cairns of large rocks about the size suitable for launching with a catapult but he had no such contraption right then, nor the time or means to make one, not even a crude one, what with an enraged predator circling overhead. There were large boulders as well, some of them were several times bigger than a wagon, but those did him no good as they were far too heavy for him alone to lift. It was as he watched the dragon swoop down from above, over the tops of the few remaining poles lodged into the cairns that Gyousou got an idea.

:_If I cannot throw something at it of sufficient weight to defeat its great size and strength and crush its windpipe, then I will simply have to use its own size and strength against it_.:

Gyousou took a few more moments to study the creature. The thing binding its mouth closed had distracted and disoriented it, yes, but it would not last forever. Sooner or later the cord would give way and the beast would be able to breathe fire again, and Gyousou would be right back where he had started.

The sky began to lighten into twilight heralding the dawn and Gyousou finished with his plan. If he maneuvered himself correctly then he could use the light of the rising sun to blind his opponent during a critical moment. Timing would be everything.

Gyousou continued to move from cover to cover, firing off arrows at any place that looked like it might be remotely vulnerable. His arrows never pierced the armor of the beasts hide, but they did have the effect of making an already frustrated enemy even angrier and more disturbed. The battle was turning to Gyousou's favor, if he could keep managing things, he might make it out of the encounter alive. In the course of one of his dodges, he picked up a small, light round shield made of iron and hurriedly polished the surface of it when he ducked into the lee of another cairn of stones to evade the drakh's frustrated tail-swings and claw-swipes. He kept a weather eye on the eastern horizon even as he harried his foe from different positions with his arrows, frustrating and enraging the beast further. Wiping the shield sporadically and using the sand-like dust as an abrasive, Gyousou managed to polish the shield back to a mirror-like finish.

:_This must be aimed just right_…: he thought as she quickly scaled a large cairn of stones in just the right direction, at the position between four'o clock and five o'clock relative to the post that he and Ansen had been tied to. That post was the tallest of them all, the others had been burned down to mere stumps by previous drakh-feedings. Gyousou stuck the shield in between two stones and tilted it until it had reached the exact position he wanted it in then left it wedged in place.

:_All that's left is to keep it busy and angry until the time is right to strike_!:

The sky slowly lightened from grey to pink and at last to orange as the golden disk of the sun rose slowly up over the horizon. Gyousou stopped harrying the beast for a long moment and waited for it to take off from the ground and gain some altitude for a greater dive. That was when he stepped out into the open, standing vulnerably in the exact place he had marked out for himself, with an arrow nocked and two more waiting. The General of the Right gave a great shrill whistle to attract the drakh's attention. The creature, enraged past all sense by the constant harrying of its intended prey, dove directly towards him. At that moment the cord binding its great maw snapped and the beast freed its jaws to rain fire down on the warrior. Gyousou Saku stood his ground, not so much as twitching a muscle.

The drakh sped towards him from out of the wind with all the implacable fury of a storm, jaws opened wide to consume him in one bite. Still he held his position and did not move. It came closer, thirty feet, twenty… Gyousou drew back his arrow, waited, counting to three, and let fly, directly for the hole of its gaping maw.

At the exact moment that the arrow pierced the vulnerable flesh at the back of the creature's throat, there was a flash of light as the rising sun reflected off the polished shield that gyousou had put into place behind him. The creature was blinded and did not adjust its flight-path for the sacrifce-pole lodged into the ground in front of Gyousou sticking up at the sky like a massive spear. Forced forward by its own momentum, the drakh careened right into the up-jutting stake which acted as a spear, thrusting right into its throat. The crude weapon did not pierce the great beast's flesh, but it did not need to. The force of the blow crushed its windpipe, and after many long moments of flailing about, the drakh slowly expired of suffocation.

Just to be safe, Gyousou took a glaive from a nearby dead soldier and expediently shoved it through the creature's right eye all the way until it reached the brain. Even if it had somehow survived its suffocation… it was dead _now_.

:_Well, that's done_,: Gyousou thought with satisfaction at the completion of his task as he turned away to go and see about managing the situation with the Foresworn.

He needn't have bothered however, Gyousou had not managed to get three paces from the site of his first fallen prey when the dawnlight revealed the sight of several hundred warriors of the Imperial Army, in the sky on the backs of their Kijyuu, swooping toward the small Foresworn camp nestled in the valley below him. Gyousou watched as they all made short work of rounding up the village, felling those who resisted, and imprisoning the rest to be sorted out at trial. He sighed a bit with regret that he would not be joining that battle. The sun was not far over the horizon when another troop, this one formed in strict formation and flying the Imperial flag of Tai, landed on the ledge where Gyousou had just felled the drakh.

His Liege, the Emperor of Tai dismounted from his own Kijyuu, and Gyousou knelt to him in proper obeisance.

"My, my General," The Emperor said in tones that were amused and not displeased. "I send you out to locate a drakh for me to slay and you not only find a nest of Foresworn, but you manage to slay the drakh yourself without the use of a my Celestial Relic."

"It was not my intention to go against your majesty's orders," Gyousou lied, because really, it sort of _had_ been his intention all along to slay the beast.

"Well if that's how it is, I suppose I will overlook your impudence in stealing my prey. Well done General. I see now that I definitely leave Saku Province in capable hands."

Just at that point General Ansen of the Left landed and made obeisance to his emperor.

"Your majesty, the Foresworn have been secured and the village cleaned out. The people await your justice."

"If I must, I must," His Majesty said heaving a put upon sigh. "And General… well done, I will send a congratulations gift of ten thousand bushels of rice from the Imperial Stores to your Province as a commendation for your bravery and the greatness of your deed. Truly you have saved me a great deal of trouble this day."

"It is ever my wish to be of service to my land and people. There is one favor I would ask your majesty."

"Name it," the King said indulgently.

"However wrong and misguided they are, the Foresworn are still people of Tai. Punish the adults and soldiers as the Kingdom's Law befits them, but let their children, who are innocent of any wrongdoing so far, be treated with kindness and compassion. If you give them to homes that will foster them and raise them properly, I believe they will grow to be proper citizens of Tai."

"You suggestion is everything I have come to expect of you General Saku, I shall grant your request."

"Your Majesty is most gracious," Gyousou bowed his head in gratitude.

"I stand amazed as ever, general," Ansen said after the king had remounted his kijyuu to go administer his justice further down the mountain. "We finally manage to get the jump on a Foresworn settlement and you want to turn them all into upstanding citizens. Mark my words, those kids will grow up with grudges against the Realm and placed in positions where they can spy for the rest of them."

"And you mark mine, they've had little enough of real warmth and comfort here. Raised in a town by people who will look out for them, they will open their hearts in time and come to accept that Law and Righteousness are bestowed by Heaven."

Then Ansen's eye fell to the form of the dead drakh arrayed out behind Gyousou where it had fallen and Gyousou was treated to the sight of the General of the Left being truly surprised.

"It seems you have left me no sport General Saku," he said after he got over his visible surprise. "And here I had thought I would be the one to come to your aid."

"My apologies for ruining your morning," Gyousou replied with dry courtesy.

"Well, you certainly know how to garner attention Saku, I'll give you that. I'll wager that word of your having defeated a drakh like some heroe out of legend will spread far and wide like the rest of the tales of your deeds."

"I was only doing my duty to Tai and its people. And other man would do the same."

"You know it sometimes amazes me that you don't ever seem to recognize just what kind of man you are, and how great your fame has grown. I guess it's true what they say… a tiger never sees its own stripes."

Gyousou had nothing to say to that so he simply mounted his own kijyuu and went to attend to his next duty.

The remainder of the morning was spent attending to the aftermath of the battle, and it wasn't until later on, as Gyousou was leading his own troops back to the palace, that he realized what strange thing had been bothering him since he and the Imperial Presence had left the mountainside. The strange relic that was held by the Foresworn in their village had seemingly _disappeared_. When he looked back though the reports that had been submitted to the Palace Archives, only his own report had mentioned the artifact. There was no record of it in Ansen's report, nor of the reports of any of his subordinates. He had thought it a bit _odd_, but with everything else that went on after he had taken command of his own province and later moved to shore up the Imperial Court, the minor matter of the Foresworn relic simply slipped his mind.

End Interlude.


	5. Book I: Path of Sorrows: Chapter 4

Yuka tried to recover her senses, but her scattered wits wouldn't coalesce into anything she recognized as a meaningful pattern right away. She lay there on the pebbly beach, frigid waves lapped at her feet and her whole body felt tired. Passing through the void always left her feeling like every speck of her existence had been pulled in ten different directions and then reassembled with everything slightly to the left of where it had been before. She could make out the gentle shush of waves crashing into shore and the creelings of nearby seabirds but that was all her befogged mind could make sense of and even those details weren't helpful to her in her current state.

:_Wait, Taiki_!: she thought frantically, her scattered wits at last pulling together in an instant of panicked urgency. She had brought her friend across the void so he was her responsibility. Kaname wouldn't have anyone else to look after him!

Yuka managed to force herself to face upwards and sat up, looking around for her friend. She found him a handsbreadth away from her, still asleep on the beach.

:_Thank goodness, he seems to have made it through okay_,: she thought, overcome with an unexpected wave of relief.

She checked her person and found that both of the bag she'd packed was fully intact, to her vast relief. At least they'd have some helpful articles to help them, though now that she was here, she wasn't sure exactly what their next move should be. Kaname was still unconscious from the journey, so her first worry was going to have to be him, other matters could just wait for now.

:_I can't leave him alone while he's unconscious, but likewise I don't know if it's a very good idea for us to stay out in the open for very long either_.:

This wasn't her first trip to the rodeo after all, and she knew from her last visit that there were places in the Other World that captured and executed "kaikyaku" as her kind were called over here, on sight. If she was in the Kingdom of Sou, they might be in trouble.

:_We might be in trouble anyway_,: Yuka thought. :I don't know what all caused Kaname to return to the other world when he's supposed to be ruling his kingdom beside his king but my instincts tell me that if all were truly well in his home kingdom he would be there at his kings side.:

In addition to that, she had heard some things, both serving under the king of Kou and her breif time alongside Youko with the King of En. Tai was not in a very good state at all. There were supposedly youma running rampant through the countriside and no-one knew where the king was. That was all she had really heard.

Her stomach and spine began to get that familiar knotted feeling in it. It was a feeling that had nagged her throughout most of her previous stay in this place, it was a feeling that came from a heinous cocktail of worries all mixed together; not knowing where she was, not really being sure of where she should go, not really knowing what to do, certainly not knowing where her next meal was coming from (she'd brought some supplies. but those wouldn't last long) not having a place to sleep, not knowing if travel along the roads would end up with her being attacked by bandits, or worse. There were a lot of things she had to worry about, and she wondered what in the world had ever possessed her to want to take on this burden again.

:_Because_,: she realized, looking down into the sleeping face of her friend, Kaname the Kirin of Tai. :_I couldn't just leave him to face it all alone._:

She had felt it was her duty to return the kirin of Tai to the world he belonged in so that he could... do whatever it was he was meant to do over here. Even though it was her duty, she hadn't liked the idea of sending her friend Kaname into a strange world all alone and friendless, with no-one to protect him and look out for him.

:I might not be much, but I still have some skill with a sword, after all the hinma trained my muscle memory and that is something that does not fade so easily. I can kill youma if nothing else. And even if I'm not really heroine material, I have it in me to be a loyal friend, I'm sure.:

Kaname was so sweet and harmless. He believed the best of everyone, even Yuka. He had said clearly that he had been happy here, and Yuka wanted him to be happy again. It felt a bit strange for her to want someone else's happiness more than her own, but at the same time she couldn't deny that it felt natural for her to want that.

Yuka stopped her minds frantic buzzing for a moment to enjoy the sunrise over the ocean. It was a beautiful one, blazing reds and golds and orange and pink across the sky. Looking at the area around her, there was the ocean before her but behind and all around her it seemed, majestic mountains, some of them still with snow on them jutted stonily up into the sky. The air of the place they'd landed in was noticeably colder than some of the kingdoms she had been in, and yet there was a wild sweetness to it that made her brethe it in deeply, certain she'd never smelled anyplace that had such a lovely scent to it. She couldn't see much of the land that surrounded her, the forrest was too dense, but it looked like an untamed northern wilderness.

:_First things first_,: Yuka thought as she sat up and positioned Kaname Taiki's head more comfortably on her lap so he wouldn't accidentally breathe in the sand and choke. :_We need to find out where exactly we are._:

If they were in Sou, they'd better start making their way northward in a hurry and avoid the roads and other travelers for a while. She wouldn't want to meet up with anyone who would load her and her friend in a wagon and take them to the nearest village to be executed.

:_And aside of finding out where we are, we need to find out more about the situation, then we can make a plan_,: Yuka thought. Already she felt the smothering cloak of responsibility squeezing in around her shoulders, it had been frightening enough when she was fifteen and a victim of circumstance, but after a pause to take her own measure, she found that she was not feeling the same way about it now as she had felt about it then.

:_ I wonder why that is_,: she pondered to herself.

An internal flash of all of the hours she had spent at the nearby gym/training center in her neighborhood, training on her own and with her teacher in the ways of escrima flashed into her mind. Experience could be a powerful goad, as Yuka quickly learned. Remembering how powerless she had felt without the strength or ability to defend herself from an attack had made a deep impression on her. She had silently vowed to herself that she would never again be caught out so helpless, and when she returned she sought training and trained herself rigorously, trying to learn as much as possible as quickly as feasible. She never wanted to feel helpless again. She had already been an athletic sort, but when Yuka turned her mind and will to mastering something her body quickly fell in line. The fact that she practiced at every chance she got went a long way towards her tutalage.

Yuka had learned the basics of the art of the sword in the Other Wolrd, but she didn't have very many good associations with it, besides that, logic told her that she would not always have a sword handy and she should focus her efforts on studying a weapon that she would be able to find and use no matter where she went. The local fitness center had an instructor who taght escrima, it was a fighting style from the Philipines that used two sticks as the weapons, and the rest was all how the fighter moved. It relied on speed and maneuverability, and a great deal of defensive hand maneuvers. Yuka felt that it would be perfect for her and after a week, found that she had been right. A year later, she was in the first row. Always in the back of her mind had been the times in this world when she wished she had known how to do something.

She should check the supplies she'd packed, just in case, and lay out all of the things that had gotten wet so that they could dry in the sun. Suiting thought to action, she dragged Kaname further up onto the beach and, deciding that it would probably be good to have something for the both of them to warm up by, walked up and down the beach nearby collecting driftwood and dried out seaweed, this she deposited into a pile and stacked in the pyramid shape she'd seen on camping survival instruction dvd's she'd rented (Yuka had never once been camping in her world) and filled the center with smaller stuff that would hopefully catch. She had a heck of a time getting the dried out seaweed and damped paper to catch fire, first she had to figure out how to block the wind with her body then she had to get the stubborn stuff to hold a flame, she almost gave up and used the extra lighter fluid on it! Only the thought that they might need it more urgently later stopped her. It felt like forever when the wood proper at last began to take and a proper fire licked around the lager sticks and started to travel onto the log-ish-sized ones she'd dragged over and broke off.

It seemed so simple, but having a fire to warm her up did cheer her up and make her feel accomplished. She'd never managed to that the last time she'd been in this world, maybe she could do this after all! Yuka took out all of the things she'd packed away in both travel packs and lined them up before the fire. She'd carefully made sure to pack only things she felt were going to be absolutely useful and necessary (and things she would have sold her soul for the last time she'd been stormcast into this world). She had only packed for Kaname to make this trip so she didn't have any other clothes than the ones she was wearing.

:_That's fine, I suppose that it doesn't really matter how bad your pants look, as long as you have a clean shirt and panties_.:

She'd settle that later. First on the agenda was the food supply. She'd packed two-liter plastic (former) soda bottle with dry instant rice and another one with pancake batter mix. She knew that kaname was a vegan so she figured that he could eat that stuff perfectly well as long as they were kept dry (hence the water-tight plastic bottles). Yuka had been rather proud of herself for thinking of it. She was also proud of herself for remembering to bring something to cook it on (on her first trip in she would have given a lot for even a small cookpan). She double checked the contents and was relieved to note they had made the journey intact and perfectly dry. She checked the soap and the granola bars she'd stored in plastic bags (she took a handful of the plastic bags too) and found that it too was sound, as were sundries such as the rope, the knives, the compass (the flashlight worked just fine) and other items she'd thought might come in handy.

:All in all, I think I did pretty well,: Yuka congratulated herself.

She tried to concentrate on those items that would be immediately and continually useful for surviving in the wilderness or traveling on the open road. Any extras had been ruthlessly discarded in the interest of preserving weight, for she had to keep in mind that whatever she packed he'd have to carry with him. Yuka had been guided mostly by what she would have about killed for on the last trip into the howling wilderness she'd taken. All the stuff might have been a bit much for one person to try to carry, but with two people it should be just fine. Yuka spent the rest of the while that kaname was asleep setting up a camp and re-packing the bags to maximize the space in each pack. Kaname tossed and turned restlessly in his sleep, as if trying to fight off something in his dreams. She thought of maybe trying to wake him up, but in the end decided it was best to let him sleep, he would need all the rest he could get. The sun was at midday when he groaned and opened his eyes.

"Hey sleepy head, rise and shine," Yuka said cheerfully.

Finally! Now that he was awake, she could make something to eat!

"Oh..." he groaned, slowly sitting up and looking around him. "My head. Where are we?"

There was no easy way to put this, so she'd just have to jump right into it.

"Remember that other world I told you about?" Yuka said a little sheepishly.

Kaname looked at her owlishly.

"Well we're in it," she finished, wincing a bit.

"You're kidding, right?" he asked a little flatly.

"Nope, sorry," she said, trying to sound chipper about it. "Remember all those rumors about how Youko Nakajima and me and Asano-kun all disappeared for that year? We all came here. Youko was supposed to be the only one, someone from this place went to our world to look for her, but he was followed by an enemy, and that enemy was the one who caused that rukus in the school that the state later declared was some kind of terrorist attack. Anyway, Asano-kun and I were more or less caught up in it and taken to this world as well. Youko was brought over here because she had... a special job to do. It turns out that she's actually from over here and, um, so are you. I've been trying to think of a way to get you back here for a long time now, the only way I knew of was through those freak world-storm thingies and, just your luck, one appeared."

"Th-this is crazy!" Kaname exploded. "Okay, enough of your weird sense of humor Yuka, where are the hidden camera's? I want to go home right now!"

The surrounding pebbles along the beach all rattled a little from the force of his emotions.

"You are home," she said. "You might not remember that year you went missing, but your people had been looking for you for a very long time and they managed to find you and bring you home. To this place. You're someone special, Kaname!"

"Special? Gimme a break!" he said, disbelieving her.

"You know its true," Yuka replied firmly. "Haven't you always felt it, that deep down you're different from everyone else?"

Kaname hesitated for a long moment then said

"That's just the isolation of intelligence, nothing more. All intellectual children feel left out by their own perception."

Yuka made a noise of frustration.

"Well what about all those odd incidents that keep happening around you? The way things you wanted or didn't want kept happening around you without you causing them? Didn't you ever once wonder if they were more than just accidents?"

"I-" kaname paused looking cornered. "They were just accidents, I didn't do any of them, I would never hurt anyone!"

"I know you wouldn't," Yuka soothed, feeling a pang of guilt at his distress.

How was she supposed to make it clear to him that he was special in a good way, without making him feel like a freak?

"You're too kind and gentle, you wouldn't hurt a fly if it bit you," Yuka tried to reassure him. "But sometimes a person can do things out of self-protection that might have consequences they don't intend."

Yuka waited on pins and needles, hoping he wouldn't take it the wrong way.

"So you're saying I somehow made that dresser move that almost hurt my brother and my grandmother was right about me?"

"Umm... not exactly," Yuka hedged.

She huffed out a sigh, trying to think of something to say to him that would make him see the truth and get him started trying to figure out whatever it was that had separated him and his emperor and get him moving towards fixing it. She decided to just level with him.

"Look, I'm going to tell you straight. I don't know everything, I probably don't even know _most_ things about the situation. I came here pretty much by accident the last time I was here, but I was... more or less involved with how the Queen of a kingdom called Kei got on the throne."

For the _worse_, basically she had been involved, though her involvement had been more along the lines of keeping Nakajima _off_ the throne rather than putting her on it. She could take the easy way out and say she'd been manipulated by the crazy king Kou but Yuka had decided for herself that she would not allow herself to live the kind of pathetic existence everyone else seemed to content themselves with in which they constantly lied to themselves to make themselves feel better. Yuka had sworn to herself that if she was going to live by her own convictions, she would never let herself be blind to the darker corners of her soul. If she had guilt, she would bear it and try to make up for it. She'd make mistakes and she'd fail, that was perhaps her destiny, but at least she'd know that her mistakes had been made while she was trying to do what she felt was best.

:_I wonder if this really is for the best_,: Yuka thought as she looked at Kaname.

He was shivering and he looked frightened, even in the midday sun. Yuka wanted to wrap him up in a blanket, tell him it was all just a joke and they could both go home now. Come to that, she wouldn't have minded a good long dose of that annoyingly too-tight normalness right then if it came accompanied with a long hot bath and her warm safe bed.

"I do know a few things though," Yuka continued firmly, quashing the desire. "I know about kings and kirin."

She'd been delivered the lecture all about them by an old village wise man who had once been on a queens internal council.

"I know that you are the Kirin of Tai."

"What? That's impossible! I was born and raised in the same town you're from, same as you. Stop joking around and lets go home."

"But you're not the same, the seed that makes you who you are was the egg-fruit of a special tree that grows at the top of a mountain in the middle of this world. That tree is the only tree that grows kirin. That ranka that you came from blew into the huorai, just like Nakajima's did, and your spirit attached itself to a human embryo. You were born into that world without actually being from that world. You are the Kirin of Tai."

"But that's-" he protested. Yuka leaned forward and shushed him by placing her hand over his mouth and looking him directly in the eyes. She found that she could often intimidate people by doing that, there was something about people that seemed they, like apes and dogs and cats, could be challenged and frozen like prey if she caught their gaze hard enough.

"_Listen_ to me," she said seriously. "Better yet, listen to yourself. Listen to your heart. Listen to your dreams. All of this time, you can't tell me you haven't felt it. Haven't you heard it, now and then, sometimes just on the edge of waking? A voice?"

Yuka was going mostly by hearsay, on the gamble that the Kirin of Tai also had some of those spirit-beings that Keiki had commanded, and that they too could talk and were probably trying to reach him somehow and get him to go back home.

Kaname was sitting on the ground shivering, but clearly not because he was wet and cold. He looked like a lost little boy, scared and alone and uncertain.

"I... I thought I was going crazy," he said.

Yuka could hear and edge of a plaintive sob in his voice.

"I thought that all the things everyone whispered about me were turning out to be true. I didn't want to be a freak, like some kind of circus exhibit. I just wanted..."

Yuka looked at him understandingly.

"You wanted a place where you could fit in. Well, I'm sorry to tell you, but you definitely are not normal but don't worry, you're not a freak either. You're special, and not in a short-bus kind of way either."

"I know..." he murmured. "I've been seeing it. In my dreams. I can hear her, Sanshi. I can hear her clearly now. When we crossed worlds she told me about everything."

"Then it sounds like you know more than I do," Yuka said, both trying to encourage him and get down to business.

"It's strange, but that Taiki business feels like a dream, or like I was watching something that happened to someone else."

"Look around you, does all of this look like a dream?" Yuka lifted up her shirt to show a bruise that was the result of her sleeping for most of the night on a rock at the edge of the beach darkening her ribcage. "I don't know about you but I don't usually have bruises in my sleep."

The humorous way she'd said it got a wan smile out of him.

"So we're at least agreed that neither of us is dreaming," Yuka said. "Are we tentatively on board that you're the Kirin of Tai?"

Kaname looked at her for a long moment and turned his gaze inward.

"sanshi says that no other being is able to control Youma the way a kirin can, not even a king. She's definitely there and I can sense Gouran prowling around in there too... hey! I remembered his name!"

"Alright, progress," Yuka agreed cheefully. "Did Sanshi tell you anything about what we're supposed to be doing now?"

"You don't know?" Kaname looked a little desperately at her.

"Hey, I'm just the guide and protector. This is your show," Yuka told him. "I've been here before so I should be able to keep us alive and moving, but I'm going to take my directions from you."

"What do you mean protector, you're a girl!" Kaname pointed out.

"I fight better than you," Yuka rebutted.

Kirin were the essence of pacifism, which was why they needed youma to fight for them. If left to his own devices Yuka knew that Taiki wouldn't left a hand to defend himself and that wasn't going to help anyone in this situation.

"My instructors all say that I'm good enough to easily place in nationals and I've geared myself toward melee fighting, so yes, while you still need me, I'm your protector. You certainly can't protect yourself."

"Hey!" Kaname protested, nettled.

"It's true," she said flatly. "This place is dangerous, and not in the same way that our world is dangerous. There are actual bandits on the road and some of them won't hesitate to kill you and rob you instead of just rob you. More than bandits there are monsters called youma, who will actually eat a person. And as if that weren't enough to deal with, in some countries it is considered bad luck to be a kaikyaku, that's what they call a person from our world, and in Sou they round up any they find and take them to the nearest village to be tried and executed for the crime of being a kaikyaku."

Kaname looked at her in wide-eyed amazement.

"So, obviously you need someone to raise a hand to defend you. I'm it. As long as you need me, I'll be right by your side."

It was funny, but Yuka could have sworn she felt a strange, unearthly feeling pass between them. She furrowed her brow to track down the cause of her sudden unease but before she could find it it passed away. It almost felt like the world itself had heard her and decided that she had just made a promise or something. Yuka shook her head nad decided that it was probably just dizziness from hunger.

"I've brought some supplies that should help to feed us, for a little while at least. I think pancakes would be a little more ambitious than I can handle right now, besides, I don't have a bowl to mix batter in, but a little rice should be in my means to make. We'll both feel better after we eat. Then, we can get started on figuring out what you're here to do."

Kaname nodded, still clearly having trouble coming to grips with the situation. Yuka left him to think it over while she used some of the purified water from the water bottle, the frypan and the minute rice to make lunch. In theory, cooking rice over a campfire wasn't any different from cooking it over a stove, in practice... it was _way_ different. Yuka came out with something that wasn't quite burned, but parts of it were crunchy and parts of it were starchy and she would not have eaten it at home, but out here she was conscious of the fact that she had very limited supplies and that every bit of food was precious. It might not be the best, but hunger was a good spice.

"I think I chipped a tooth," Yuka remarked of her campground cooking halfway into the meal.

"I didn't want to say anything but it is a little more... interesting than the food I usually get from you," Kaname agreed diplomatically.

She didn't have plates or bowls either so they were eating from the same frypan she'd cooked it in with a pair of chopsticks improvised from a single stick found on the beach, cut and whittled down for the purpose. At least it saved on dishes.

"We need to know two things before we can decide on anything else. The first one is, why we're here. The second one is, where exactly here is," Yuka said to him. "Some places treat travelers nicely, other places..."

She left it hanging to remind him of the last example she'd given, the one with the executions in it.

"I don't clearly remember all of the details from when I was Taiki," Kaname said. "Some things are as clear as if I lived them yesterday, like the time I picked out Gyousou-sama to be the emperor, and the time that King En visited and they tried to trick me into bowing for him."

"Huh?" Yuka asked.

So Kaname related the story of being a young and uncertain Kirin on Mt Hou and not knowing what he was supposed to be looking for when he was supposed to know who the emperor was. And he found that as he talked about them to Yuka the memories themselves became clearer; he remembered other things like the divine maidens, and how he had tamed his first youma and finally, how he had been so drawn to and frightened of Gyousou and how he had, at his young age, decided that picking anyone would be better than being a fraud unable to pick a king so he had bowed to the general and they had set up to ascend the throne. Then his later tearful confession about how he hadn't seen the "aura" at all and the ensuing well-meaning trick by the En-Ou and the Enki to show him that as a kirin, he could only bow his head to his rightful ruler.

"I didn't actually know a lot of that," Yuka said when he was done. "I only knew a little bit from what Youko told me and from other odds and ends that I'd heard around. Do you remember how you got to be back home?"

Kaname shook his head sadly.

"I can remember some of my time in the imperial palace, but it all gets fuzzy toward the end after Gyousou-sama marches off to deal with a rebellion in one of his provinces. I don't know how I got to be back in my world or what happened to put me there. I don't know if my king is okay, or if my country is well. Gyousou-sama..."

"Heyyy, don't worry," Yuka treid to encourage him.

kaname made her feel like such an older sister, he was like the little brother she'd never had.

"We'll sleep here tonight and in the morning we'll break camp bright and early and then see what we can do about finding some civilization. There's bound to be a fishing village or a port or something around here, this looks like a good beach for it."

"Alright, but now its your turn," Kaname said. "I told you everything I know about my visit, now you have to tell me what happened to you when you came to this world."

Yuka got uncomfortable. Her part in the journey wasn't really something to brag about. Still, she supposed that, since they were in this together, he deserved to know the truth about it. She started a bit reluctantly, but Yuka told the story of how she had been swept along in Youko's adventures, and been quite taken with the idea that _she_ was the one meant to be the heroine of the story. So much so that when King Hou had come along with his offer to help her prevent Nakajima from ascending to the throne she had seized on it and become her former schoolmate's enemy. Yuka carefully didn't make excuses for herself, she didn't need them. Her actions had been her own and she should be aware of her fault in them.

"And before we parted and she sent me home, I told her I would live quietly and safely in the mortal world, get married and have ten kids," Yuka finished a while later after the sun had set and the two of them were huddled close to the fire under the single blanket she'd packed for him.

"I don't know how that's going to work out," she added after a moment. "I'm here with you after all, and we seem to have our work cut out for us."

"You seem like a strange contradiction, Yuka," Kaname said. "You don't offer excuses for your behavior, but you don't seem to apologize for it either."

"Even if I was wrong, and I'll own that I very clearly was," she replied. "The thing I don't regret was following my convictions. However, there is one source of regret for me about the whole business, and that is that my convictions stemmed from such impure motives. In that I believe I failed in right action. Still, even if I failed and fell short of pure integrity, that doesn't mean I can't try again and get it right this time."

Yuka smiled a little shyly. It felt strange for her to make such a speech, saying such things out loud, but it was nonetheless true for her. Yuka had never been the sort to let one or two little obstacles get in her way, that was probably why her world was so boring for her, there just didn't seem to be any challenge in it.

:_Much as I want to be the heroine of the story, my job here is to make sure Kaname gets his job done. I might not be the rightful heir or whatever, but being the knight's not so bad_,: she thought, looking at the sleepy-eyed Kaname a little fondly.

"You should rest up," she told him.

"What about you, Yuka?" Kaname asked.

"I'll be in in a little bit, I'm going to make sure there's enough wood for the fire and enjoy it a little bit more, then I'll come in and go to sleep."

Kaname nodded and obediently took the blanket and went into the tent. Yuka poked up the fire a little and looked upwards and out into the starry night sky.

:_Wow_...: she thought to herself as she actually saw them. :_You never see a sky like this where we live_!:

Yuka had been born and raised in the city, and all of the light pollution blotted out most of the stars.

:_I never knew there were so many of them_,: she thought in dawning realization.

Yet another thing it seemed that her world and society had lost in its never-ceasing march for progress that they never seemed to count the cost of. She'd miss this, when it was her time to go back.

:_I wonder though, if it will be possible for me to go back. Certainly there would be a lot more questions asked the second time I disappeared with someone and returned but they didn't_.:

The police and anyone asking questions about where she and Asano and Nakajima had disappeared to had been very careful not to press her too hard for answers, out of concern for her mental well being after what they likely saw as an ordeal. Yuka had the feeling that another such disappearence in which she was the sole returnee would be treated entirely differently.

:_I'll worry about that when it's time to worry about it. For now, I'm here to help Kaname. We're already past the point of no return, so there's no point in second guessing myself. I've made up my mind to help him, so I'll do the best I can_.:

Shaking her head out of her wistful turn of thought, Yuka put most of the rest of the firewood onto the fire to burn through the night and crawled over to the spot next to the kirin and stole under his covers to share his body heat with him. At any other time and with any other person, Yuka would have never done any such thing, but Kaname was Taiki, a kirin, not human and not really _male_ in the sexual sense. Strangely, though she often found him attractive in an _aesthetic_ sort of way, it was more the way she would admire a pretty painting or a flower, lovely but alien to her. She liked Kaname, but she didn't see him as boyfriend material, he felt like a brother to her, so she felt perfectly secure in curling up to him for the night.

* * *

**At last, let the journey begin. Review please!**


	6. Book I: Path of Sorrows: Chapter 5

It was chill enough to see her breath when the weak light of dawn woke her the next morning. The sky was the kind of grey that meant cold sunless days ahead and the possibility of a constant mizzling rain that never quite downpoured but also never let up. Miserable weather for travel. Her body was sore and creaky all over from sleeping on the ground all night but regardless she forced herself to get up and crawl out of the warm little nest beside Kaname. The only way she would get anything remotely approaching warm was by getting the fire going. It had burned low in the night but she could still feel the heat of the embers buried safely in the ashes, they had been lucky that it had not rained during the night. She piled on the remainder of the wood she had saved out for the purpose and in a few moments, by blowing on the coals, she had the fire going again. She still had no bowl to make pancake batter with, but considering how simple minute rice had turned out the day before, perhaps it was better that way. Yuka started on making another serving of rice for the two of them, they couldn't travel on an empty stomach after all.

:Wow!: Yuka thought, taking another look around her. :It's... incredible here, so beautiful!:

She had traveled quite a distance in this world the last time she had been there, but the lands she had traveled through mostly looked a lot like her own home. The new land she was in was breathtaking.

Craggy grey mountains jutted pointedly up into the sky, with majestic white clouds resting in and around them sprawled out in every discernible direction in the inland distance away from the sea. Tall, rugged pines climbed up the slopes as far as they could go until the snow reached down from the tops of the mountains. The air was crisp, clear, cool. It looks like a wild land, suitable only for the strong and hearty. Yuka wasn't sure what it was about this place, but it called to her. She liked it.

"Good Mornin'," Kaname, said cheerfully a few minutes later as he crawled out, apparently wide awake and ready to go. He had the blanket wrapped as a mantle around his shoulders to insulate him against the chill of the morning. Yuka had simply slept in her hoodie.

"It's morning," she acknowledged grumpily.

"Not a morning person are you?"

"Oh I think that all morning people should be admired," Yuka said with a sharp, shark-like smile. "And then executed."

"You have an interesting sense of humor," Kaname told her.

He was being diplomatic of course. Yuka had a sly, occasionally biting sense of humor. The psychologist that her parents had sent her to thought that she used it as a way to distance herself from people.

"Meh," she replied. "Food's done."

Yuka and Kaname shared the fry-pan of rice and then after breakfast washed and put away the single dish then moved on to packing up the camp, such as it was. There wasn't a whole lot to it, Yuka had done most of the packing the day before.

"Now what?" Kaname asked next, like Yuka he was taking a look around him at the wild majestic scenery but unlike Yuka he seemed more afraid of it than pleased by it.

Yuka looked up and down the beach to her left and to her right.

"Well, we have two choices. Left or right. Pick one."

"How do we know which one will take us to a town?" Kaname asked.

"We don't," Yuka said with a shrug.

Thier attention was momentarily distracted by the sound of seabirds calling shrilly down the beach. They exchanged a look.

"Might as well try that way," Kaname said. "If it doesn't lead to only a good fishing spot for seabirds, it might be a sign of civilization."

Yuka thought of all of the seabirds that hung around in her home town, by the port, off the docks, in the parking lots and had to agree with him.

"Let's get moving then," she said.

The walk down the beach was easy and uneventful. There were no Youma to bother them and the pebbly beach was clear. Despite the chill it was actually quite pleasant and Yuka found herself joining Kaname in singing some popular songs from the radio.

"I never took you for an Utada Hikaru fan," she remarked a little teasingly after he sang the song from Kingdom Hearts.

"Her songs are so cheerful," Kaname said innocently.

"Most guys your age would commit seppuku before they admitted to liking a female popstar," Yuka felt obliged to point out.

"Most guys my age, my brother included, are too obsessed with conforming to societal norms for masculine gender roles," Kaname replied without missing a beat. He smiled a little shyly at Yuka and said

"As a sensitive artist type, I'm exempt."

Yuka smiled and shook her head a little in amusement. He had a good point.

They came upon a wide river flowing down from a lovely waterfall and out to sea. They were just about to debate following it inland and finding a town that way when the sound of human voices distracted Kaname.

"Hey look!" kaname pointed down the beach in front of them. "People!"

There were indeed people and other signs of habitation. There were fishermen with their boats tied up to docks bringing in their mornings catch while their younger children mended nets on the seashore. Women also worked alongside them, cleaning fish and burning refuse in sea-coal fires nearby. Yuka was surprised to notice that as she approached them, she could understand them perfectly.

"Remember Kaname," Yuka cautioned them as they approached. "Don't tell anyone about your being the Tai Kirin, we don't know what's happened in Tai and it may be that there will be trouble if word of your existence and location gets out."

"Alright," he acquiesced.

The fishermen paused in their work to carefully watch their approach. They clearly took in their state of dress, their clothes were plain enough and would probably not be too out of place anywhere they went but thier shoes were clearly foreign.

"Hello there!" Yuka called over, deciding to start things off. "My brother and I are travelers and our transport went down a ways out into the ocean. We were lucky to escape to a smaller vessel."

A lie, but a plausible one.

"Can you tell us where we are?" she asked. "It feels like we've been walking for ages!"

Misleading enough to where people might not question things too closely.

"You poor things!" one of the nearest ladies, a thick matronly looking woman in a saffron colored tunic and brown trousers. Her husband came up protectively by her shoulder and said

"You're in the fishing village of Senryu, in the kingdom of Tai."

Kaname and Yuka exchanged a long speaking look. They were already in the kingdom of Tai. She wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Best to gain as much information as they could before committing themselves to a course of action.

"Tai, huh?" Yuka said, pretending to think about it as if she were mentally placing it on a map. "That's pretty far to the north."

"Where are you two from?" the fisherman asked them a little suspiciously.

Yuka wasn't sure if Tai was one of those kingdoms that was tolerant of kaikyaku or not, she was sure it _had_ _been_ under the old king because Kaname/Taiki had painted him as a man of virtue and clear understanding, but Yuka had the sneaking suspicion that the kingdom was "under new management" and didn't want to take the chance on a policy change that could mean their deaths.

"Kei, most recently," Yuka replied easily. After all, that wasn't a lie for her. The kingdom she'd left from the last time she'd traveled to this world _had_ been Kei.

"I heard that they have a new king," the fisherman replied.

Yuka understood immediately that he was testing her to see if she was a kaikyaku or not.

"A queen," she corrected easily. "She has famous red hair, and comes form Hourai."

The wife shot her husband a reproving look and said to him.

"Enough with the interrogation! Can't you see these poor kids have been through an ordeal?"

"It's not so bad as all of that," Kaname hastened to reassure them. "Yuka planned ahead, she had everything already packed up."

Yuka mentally cautioned him. Taiki, as a kirin, was incapable of lying. If he told too much of the truth, they could be in trouble. Maybe the well-meaning fisherman wouldn't mean to, but if gossip an rumors got back to the guy who had apparently led some sort of coup (she was assuming that's what had happened) about the Taiki showing up it could make things difficult. Best to keep a low profile.

"When you travel around as much as us, it's just common sense to be careful," Yuka interjected modestly. "We'd be happy to help out around here in exchange for a place to stay the night for tonight while we decide what we shall do next."

"Do you know anything about fishing?" the husband asked.

Yuka and Kaname both shook their heads.

"Right then, you- I didn't get your names," the wife said abruptly.

"I'm Yuka," she said. "And this is my brother Kaname."

She decided that using their real-world names would be fine, they'd answer to them and her name was common enough in this world (and she didn't want to introduce him as Taiki). The ruse that they were traveling brother and sister would prevent scrutiny or censure.

"I'm Sen and this is my husband Li. You two can help me clean our catch."

Kaname tugged on the hem of Yuka's shirt and passed her a wordless worried look, communicating that he would have _problems_ with that suggestion.

:_Right, Kirin_,: she reminded herself.

"I'll be happy to help you gut fish if you'll show me how, but my brother here gets a little faint at the sight of blood, can he maybe mend nets or something?"

"Oh, sure, it's no problem," Sen the housewife said easily. "Kaname, you can go work over there with my sons."

She directed the young man off to start learning his trade for the day. Yuka was brought with Sen over to a large basket of fish, some of which were still wriggling.

"You've never gutted a fish before?" Sen said, sounding a little incredulous.

Yuka had the feeling that she'd be tipping her hand if she told the lady that the closest she had ever been to a fish that wasn't already prepared on her dinner plate was the local pet-store (who would certainly take it amiss if Yuka had tried to gut them) so she just said

"No, not once."

Well you're going to learn, I hope you're not squeemish..."

It was a good thing Yuka was not squeemish, because the little floppers wouldn't hold still and Sen expected her to insert the knife right into them. She was shown how to cleanly and efficiently cut, gut and discard then Sen was joined by two other women, probably other local housewives who all started working on the basket while Yuka worked out how to clean the fish for herself. As opposed to her, the other housewives movements were quick, efficient, practiced and economical, but once Yuka managed to get her mind off the fact that most of the fish were still alive when she cut them open, she managed the task well enough.

:_I get the feeling I'm going to get very sick of the smell of fish very quickly_,: she thought to herself.

But perhaps this temporary work would yield greater benefits for her than just a place to stay and knowledge of how to clean a fish (which might come in handy later). Women could gossip as much as men could, and they invariably did it better. Fishwives were pretty low on the societal totem pole, but they surely would have had to have heard _something_ useful about the current state of affairs. At a natural lull between conversation topics, Yuka nonchalantly posed a question.

"I am a traveler to this place, so of course I wouldn't know, but what is the king of this land like?"

Sen thumped the fish in her hand unexpectedly for emphasis and she exclaimed

"This land has no king!"

The other two housewives, looking alarmed and quickly and furtively glancing around to see if she had been overheard shushed her swiftly.

"Sen! Hush! Someone will hear you!"

"I don't care who hears me!" the woman in question said firmly.

"You know that His Majesty, King Ansen, has sent out listeners to pick up such talk, and I think it's more than a rumor that the people who speak such words where ever those listeners can hear them or be reported to by someone who has have all gone mysteriously missing."

Yuka grasped the situation at once of course, and she had no doubt that Kaname, a scholarly kid who was an avid student of history, would grasp what was going on here as well. Many of the books and novels she read and so loved had been filled with situations nearly exactly like this. The usurper to the throne sends out trusted guards to spy among the people and quickly quash any rebellion before it can begin to form by getting rid of the rumblers of discontent. The king was dethroned, hidden in a place unknown by the man who had taken over to rule in his absence...

:_And it's up to a plucky young kirin and his loyal sidekick to rescue the king, gather an army, dethrone the usurper and restore the king to his rightful place of rule_,: she thought to herself with heavy irony. :_Yeah right! I must have been crazy!_:

It was one thing to read about those adventures happening to fictional characters in books, it was another matter entirely to even think that _she_ could do something the same herself. Those fictional characters all had some kind of secret power to help them or something. Kaname was a kirin but he didn't know how to use his kirin powers, and Yuka was a relatively ordinary high school girl, yes she could fight, but she had the thought that the people she would be facing were all better fighters than she was and had been doing it for a lot longer.

And yet... and yet...

:_If I don't do it, who will? Taiki has to restore the rightful ruler, that's his duty as the Taiho. He can't fight at all and no-one else besides me knows who he is. If the wrong person finds out, that false king is going to have him kidnapped alive and thrown in a dungeon somewhere no-one will find him so that he can't choose the new king_!:

That way the true king was in no danger of dying because of his kirin, his kirin cannot choose another until Gyousou abdicates the throne, and Gyousou is prevented from abdicating the throne because he is imprisoned in places unknown.

It was a rather beautiful plan actually; one that neatly got around all of the restrictions the heavens had put into place to make certain that the proper ruler, the one chosen by the will of heaven, was the only one who sat on the throne. Keep king and kirin alive but imprisoned in a place no-one knew about then just rule in his absence "until a new kirin could choose the king" except that no new kirin would come, and by the time people realize that they might have been duped, anyone who would have been in a position to do anything about it would already have been gotten rid of.

:_Still need more info_...:

"I've never heard of this king Ansen," Yuka said innocently. "When did the kirin of Tai choose him?"

"Never!" Sen spat. "He is a false king, a pretender! A-"

"Sssshhhhhh!" her friends hurriedly shushed her. "Sen you can't say such things, you never know who might be listening and willing to repeat it."

"It is when a kings loyal subject will no longer speak the truth that a kingdom is truly lost," Sen replied staunchly.

"But think of your children, who will raise them if you disappear in the night," the other housewife replied.

This seemed to give Sen pause, for she lowered her eyes and went back to quietly gutting fish, a moment later, when she covertly looked around pretending to keep all of her attention on her work, she started to speak in a low voice.

"It was six years ago that the missing ranka of the Tai Kirin was found and restored to Mount Hou," Sen began in a soft voice. "Shortly after that announcement, the yellow flag was raised and the Shouzan, the pilgrimage to Mt Hou to choose the new ruler, was begun. I know from hearing around that the man who was chosen to be king was extraordinary, a military officer who had the foresight and initiative to realize that the former king's reign would be a short one and to shore up the failing bureaucracy with capable officers and officials he'd handpicked from the military. King Gyousou was already a legend long before he became king, so it was with relief and elation that we, the people, heard the proclamation of the revelation and Gyousou's ascension to the throne."

Yuka nodded encouragingly, so far everything the woman had said fell right in line with Kaname's story.

"His Majesty was not on the throne long enough for me to be able to form an opinion of him by his continuing actions and the capability of his rule, a scant year after he was enthroned he disappeared in the midst of a battle. The official story from out of the palace was that it was an assassination by one of his own retainers who was jealous of his ascension. A few weeks after the kings supposed assassination, the man who took control of the court until the chaos could be sorted out, Gyousen's brother in arms, a man named Ansen, announced that he had been confirmed as the rightful ruler by the Tai Kirin. No-one _we_ know of, or have had any contact with, knows for certain whether this is true or false. None of us know what the Tai Kirin looked like so we wouldn't have been able to tell for certain if the boy that appeared beside him in the parade through the streets of the capitol city was the real kirin or not. I can say this however, ever since the new king has taken the throne the presence of the Youma have increased."

Sen nodded firmly. It was a piece of apparently long held wisdom that the presence of youma was a sure sign that there was a definite imbalance in the will of heaven.

"Thank you for telling me this," Yuka said warmly. "Are you the only one who feels this way about the new king? Haven't there been more rebellions, I mean?"

"Three years ago a civil rebellion took place in I Province, but the new king quickly quashed it. It is said that he took three days to kill the leaders of the rebellion and that he stuck their heads on pikes on the gates of the county palaces as a warning to anyone else who might think to continue the rebellion. Not the mark of a ruler who is guided by a kirin."

Yuka nodded her agreement to that as she grimaced with distaste at this Ansen's unnecessarily harsh disciplinary measures.

"Even after six years under his rule and many announcements that he has been selected by a kirin, many feel that there are too many things about Ansen's rule that ring false, but... people have become to afraid to even speak of it lately. There have been increasing rumors, here and elsewhere, that the king has created a special guard within his ministry that makes people who question his rule disappear. Most of the last of King Gyousou's loyal ministers and military officials have been disappeared, or have accepted the yoke of the new kings rule without complaint."

:_Crap, this situation is worse than I thought_,: Yuka thought to herself in frustration.

The usurper-king had had time to consolidate his rule, he'd thoroughly purged all of the officials who might question his ways, cowed the rest and then went on to solidify the countryside. By the sound of things, there were spies everywhere, just listening and watching for the least sign of interest and as soon as either she or Taiki showed it, they'd be arrested and questioned.

:_So I guess I can't just show up in the imperial city and ask to join the rebellion, or start asking around if anyone knows where a pretender to the throne might decide to stash an inconvenient king_,: Yuka thought whimsically.

On that thought a germ of an idea took root. Maybe _that_ should be their next course of action then. Find where the king was being hidden.

:_After all, there can't be too many places that a usurper could stash someone of that importance and not have someone notice it after a while. Granted, even if he is a king, he's only one man, and one man can be made to disappear pretty easily, but still, it would have to be a place that was very secure_...:

She'd talk it over with Kaname later on in private. He was pretty darned smart, he'd probably have an insight into the situation she hadn't thought of. Yuka continued to "shuck fish" as it was called there until lunch was called, then she and all of the others ate a communal meal on the beach. Taiki ate the rice plain, without any fish but Yuka dug right in, famished after having to eat her own cooking over a campfire. They were taken off after lunch to more chore in order to earn their keep, Yuka was put on the drying racks, salting the fish for storage, and Kaname was set to watching the babies to make sure they didn't get into trouble. So went their first day in the Other World. Not exactly glorious kingdom-restoring stuff.

Yuka didn't get an opportunity to talk with Kaname about what she had learned that afternoon for as soon as they were done with work for the day Sen and her husband herded them to their humble little home, which was little more than four walls, a roof and a fireplace, for dinner. It was simple fare, but Sen did not skimp on her guests and for that Yuka was grateful. It was good to see that kindness was indeed universal in some people. Of course, the plentiful supply of food could have also been because they had five children, three boys and two girls, but Yuka didn't think that was the case. Kaname seemed at ease and at home with them despite the fact that, unlike Yuka, he could not have had experience in sleeping in such a place.

After dinner, Li took out a stringed instrument that looked like a mandolin and sat with it next to the fire, plucking out a song with gnarled, fisherman's hands while his family happily sang along with the words. It had about ten verses, about a fisherman who cast his net out to sea and pulled up a shining rock that enabled him to breathe under water and all of his adventures beneath the waves. It was a pleasant domestic scene, not one that Yuka had any experience with certainly. Her father was always busy and for the last year or so Yuka herself had been living away from the family house in student housing to attend her school so Yuka usually came home to a silent, empty house. Dinners were stilted affairs because the family was extremely strict and traditional. Seeing one family all crowded into a room spending time with each other without politely veiled insults and power struggles was a new sight to Yuka. She wished her house was more like theirs.

It was with a feeling of both relief and a little wistfulness that Yuka rolled out the spare futon and blanket and nestled in among the wife and younger sisters near the hearth. She'd have to talk with Kaname in the morning about thier next move.

The next morning dawned bright and early, but the fisherman's family was up and around well before dawn, getting everything ready to sail out with the tide. After they had gone, Yuka motioned Kaname off to one side down the beach to signal that she wanted to speak with him alone. She told him what she had learned and Kaname added that he had heard some few mutterings to the same effect among the stoic fishermen.

"So, now what?" she questioned. "I know we have to find wherever it is the new guy has stashed the king, but we have to do it quietly, without arousing suspicion. We also need a cover, a way for us to travel without being watched or guarded. And more to the point we need to know where we're supposed to be going. There are only a limited number of places that Ansen would be able to hide the king securely without arousing suspicion."

"You're right about that, but you don't go far enough," Kaname replied. "The place where he is hiding him would have to be secure, but more importantly, Ansen would have to feel secure hiding him there."

Yuka was puzzled for a moment but quickly caught on.

"Ah! He'd keep the king in a place that he thinks is either too well guarded by his own people for the king to escape from or is the last place that a person would look for him!" Yuka wa sreminded of a scenario from one of her novels. "Does Tai have a mental institution?"

"No, those haven't been developed here," Kaname said. "But good thinking. Can you think of any other possibilities?"

"Two spring immediately to mind, one of them would be in the dungeons of the palace itself."

"That seems a little too obvious, it's the first place a person would look..." Kaname said skeptically.

"Unless they thought that it was the _last_ place a usurper would have the temerity to imprison the rightful king," Yuka rebutted. "It's right under the imperial palace, so getting into and out of it would not exactly be easy, plus, if Ansen has full control over the palace guard, and by now he no-doubt does, there would be no-one who would report about one particular prisoner. Still, it does seem a little bit difficult to manage, and plus, there's always the danger of the king being able to inspire loyalty and being right next to the locus of power."

"What's the other option?" Kaname asked.

"If Ansen can't risk imprisoning the king where he can keep an eye on him for fear of the prisoner escaping and being able to reestablish his power immediately by right of his divine authority, then he'd send the king to a place that far away from the seat of power but still secure and loyal enough for Ansen to feel comfortable imprisoning him."

"His own provincial palace!" Kaname exclaimed.

Yuka didn't know a whole lot about the structure of things in the world but she did vaguely recall that a kingdom was divided into provinces and each of those provinces had a capitol with a provincial palace for the governor. it made sense that the new ruler would also be a governor and equally that he would have a palace of his own.

:_After all, those spies of his have to come from somewhere_.:

"We wouldn't be really really fortunate and you would remember what province that Ansen was governor of would you?"

"No," Kaname said, looking crestfallen.

"That's alright," Yuka cheered him up. "You were just a kid at the time and new to your place, you can't know everything. I'm sure it can't be too hard to find out what province the new king hails from. Now all we need is a way that allows us to travel around without raising suspicion."

"We could be merchants or peddlers," Kaname suggested.

"We don't have anything to sell and those guys are always prime targets for robbers," Yuka rebutted. "We need something unobtrusive... hey... do you know how to play an instrument?"

"Not really," Kaname replied. "Why do you ask?"

"Because entertainers are the only one's Ive seen so far that can travel around with impunity. My father wanted me to learn the violin," Yuka said. "I'm sure this world must have an instrument that's similar to what I'm used to. Buskers and musicians travel everywhere and no-one really wants to rob them because everyone knows how poor they are."

"Problem. You have no instrument," Kaname pointed out.

"I've seen something similar so I can just buy one at the first large city or town we come to, until then, we'll have to make our stores last," Yuka said firmly. "We'll start tomorrow since there's no point in getting a late start today and spending and extra night on the road."

"We can probably find a map to study so we know where we're going," Kaname said. "I'll ask around about it. You should see what else you can find out from the village wives about affairs here in Tai, the more we know, the less likely we are to give ourselves away by ignorance."

The two of them shared a nod, both feeling mutually galvanized, and set to work. It was another day of doing odd jobs, but for Yuka it was a relatively fruitful one. A traveling medicine peddler had been through the town just a few weeks ago, sharing gossip of the rest of Tai along with his wares with the relatively isolated little fishing village. It was said that travel on the roads could be chancy, the main thoroughfares that the king needed to collect taxes were kept orderly but on any other road there were no royal patrols to keep the bandit population down and a traveler took his life into his own hands traveling on them. The wives also shared some gossip of other provinces and imperial affairs; the province of Bun, where the rebellion that King Gyousou had been (reportedly) assassinated during was now in a state of chaos. The king had taken over the mines outright, installed his own people as overseers and collected every speck of profit from the water crystals rather than merely collecting taxes from the sales as had always been done. The local populace, it was said, was nothing short of a slave labor force. Any attempt at rebellion was quashed thoroughly by the kings special squadrons (which were, by report, little more than thugs with imperial armor). Bun was not the only province to suffer, in all other provinces tithes of grain to supply the palace and the army had robbed people even of their seed grain for the coming year and all farmers were worried about how they would feed themselves if they could not plant in the spring after winter. There were civil unrest and rebellions leading (it was said) to mass executions in every province where the Black Guard was not present in force. The countryside was wracked by wild bands of Youma, killing and destroying an already frightened and beleaguered populace. There were rumors of an armed rebellion against the current king by the retainers of the old king, who claimed (rightly) that the king had not been proclaimed by the kirin of Tai.

"Are you sure you and your brother want to start traveling right now?" Sen asked her as she knelt over another basket of fish. "The roads are unsafe, there are youma about, and I don't like the rumors of the Black Guard I've been hearing about."

"I am afraid that my brother and I must travel, and quickly," Yuka said. "We plan to leave tomorrow, at first light... after I wash these clothes."

There was no way she was traveling smelling so strongly of fish, a girl had to have her standards.

"Thank you for your hospitality, Sen," Yuka said sincerely. "I won't soon forget it."

"Could you not at least wait a few days?" Sen asked anxiously. "I hate the thought of the two of you alone on the road. You seem like a capable enough young woman, and your brother is very sweet, but these are dangerous times. There roads are plagues with bandits and Youma run freely over the countriside."

"It is a frightening prospect, I'll grant you, but my brother and I have urgent business and we must move quickly, before the snows of winter can descend."

It was a concern. The climate in Tai was a cold northern climate, ringed by mountains, beautiful bays and fjors, Yuka could definitely appreciate Tai's sheer natural beauty, a beauty that took her breath away even in a humble fishing village, but Taiki had told her that winter came early and hard, and once it set in, it could be suicide to try to stay on the roads without a place to keep warm. They were working on a stilted time-table.

"In that case," Sen said. "I have a young nephew, he's about your age, a little older than you are..."

Yuka raised her eyebrows at Sen. This sounded like a matchmaking ploy. Both her mother and her friends had subjected her to enough of them in well meaning but utterly misguided attempts to bring her out of what they perceived as antisocial behavior to make her wary of them.

"He owns a small ship and he takes on passengers as well as cargo. Truth be told, he's been helping a certain captain to smuggle refugees out of Tai nad into En and Kei to escape the devastation here. The ship can't make it out to sea, its certainly not large enough for that, Darin and The Iliki sails from port to port, but if you have something to offer for fare, I could make him give you a discount rate."

"You'd do that?" Yuka said in surprise.

She and Kaname might have helped them gut fish and tend nets and babies but that was for room and board, there was no real call for Sen to go out of her way for them. Sen smiled a little and said

"I don't know why, but I've got a good feeling about you and your brother. Over the years I've learned to trust my feelings. My mother had a bit of the weather-touch in her, always knew when a squall was on the way, I think I can say it would be wise for me to trust my guy on this one."

"Well thank-you! Thank-you very much. My brother and I will talk over our destination and plans and we'll let you know about them as soon as we finalize them."

"Finalize..." Sen said, as if tasting the word. "You do have a peculiar turn of phrase there in Kei, don't you?"

Yuka smiled at that and said nothing. She had never actually traveled by sea in a boat before, but considering the dangers in traveling on the road she thought it might be a wiser idea to take Sen up on her offer of a boatride.

Kaname met up with her at lunchtime and the two of them took their meal to eat more privately where no-one would overhear them. He had found out where Ansen's provincial palace was, mainly because the fishermen were grumbling about how much money in taxes and gem-wealth went to renovating the smaller government building into something resembling the palace at the kingdoms capitol. It was a province far to the north nestled in between two arms of mountain ranges stretching east-west across the province. It was fjord-country, with steep cliffs cutting up from the sea-side and the soil of the land of the province was thin. It was accessible only through one road, unless a fool wanted to try to take his chances in the mountainous wilderness (he was always welcome to go get himself killed stupidly if he wanted to). Yuka shared Sen's offer with him and the two of them settled in to discuss thier options.

"It sounds like trying to access it directly from the sea is a lost cause, at least at first. We need to get in there and scout around without being noticed."

"It seems that our only choice is to go in directly through the main road since Ansen and his Black Guard will no doubt be patrolling the waters for any attempts to sneak in. If we go disguised as ordinary travellers, like you said earlier, there's no reason why anyone would raise a question about us."

"We could say we're looking for a place to winter over and we heard that there's work to be had in construction, or that the taverns in, what province did you say it was again?"

"Shin Province," Kaname replied.

"In Shin Province sounded like they might be able to support an extra muscician or two. We could have Sen's nephew sail us to the port town nearest the road that leads north to Shin Province and pick up instruments and more suitable clothes there then continue on in disguise. There would be no reason for anyone to suspect us, even if they searched us they wouldn't find anything out of the ordinary and its not like we're going to go parading in with you in your other form," Yuka said.

"What about when we arrive in Shin Province?" Kaname asked. "What are we going to do then?"

"I'm not sure yet," Yuka replied honestly. "I was thinking that we could use our disguises to keep an ear out. Soldiers always talk, even if it's only boasting, and they never pay attention to harmless muscicians. We should try an see if we can overhear anything interesting. Then we'll need to find a way to sneak into that provincial palace."

"You make it sound like that's no big thing," Kaname replied rolling his eyes. "I think I should remind you that you're talking about sneaking into a provincial palace."

"Ah, but a palace that is currently under construction. There will be all sorts of men, carpenters, builders, every-day workmen, craftsmen artists, all of them rushing about to and fro on jobs only they know the purpose of. It should be easy to slip in under the general chaos of a construction site, just keep our heads down, look like we're doing something vitally important and if anyone questions us, say we're on an errand from so and so and he told us to go get something. We'll just have to play it by ear."

"This is an awfully haphazard rescue operation," Kaname remarked.

"In the absence of information and resources, we do what we can," Yuka said with forced cheer.

Truth to tell she was far from sanguine about their chances. There was still a lot that could go wrong, but Yuka felt down in her bones that the experience she'd gained in her previous visit wasn't wasted. She just had to keep her thoughts positive.

:_All of this is provided that this Ansen guy is even keeping the emperor there in Shin Palace_,: she thought with a pensive pang.

Still, if this didn't pan out, they'd just keep looking. If luck was on their side, then they would eventually find where the Tai-Ou was being kept.

"The port town nearest the road to Shin Province was called Kaien," kaname said.

Yuka didn't doubt it, Kaname had a memory like a steel trap. Without even trying he was in the top five of thier class.

"Then that's where we'll go," Yuka said firmly. "Don't worry Kaname, we'll find him. Even if this doesn't work, we won't give up and we'll keep trying."

Yuka briefly wondered if she should get into contact with her old schoolmate, who was (so far as she still knew) the regnant Queen of the Kingdom of Kei. She would probably have tried that route first, there was nothing like using a little royal authority for getting things done after all, but she and Taiki had already landed in Tai, so there was no point in traveling all the way to Kei just to possibly learn that there was nothing Youko could really do for them. Yuka would feel better about the situation if she and Taiki tried all that they could do for themselves first before asking another to become involved in thier affairs. Her sensei had once given her the good advice of "always try the hardest path first" if that path didn't work out for her she could go back and try her other, easier options, but she would always be satisfied with the knowledge that she had done the best she could.

Aside of that, despite having parted amicably enough, Youko and Yuka didn't exactly have a very _close_ relationship. They were no longer _enemies_, but they weren't really _friends_ either. It wasn't exactly the kind of relationship that Yuka wanted to impose on, and since they were there already...

They found Sen later on that day and told her that they would like to commission her nephew for a one-way trip to Kaien. Sen raised an eyebrow at the location but didn't press the matter, only said that she'd send her daughter over the river to talk to her sister who would speak to their brother who would send his nephew. It sounded like a complicated process but it gave Yuka some insight into the differences between her world and theirs. In this world, family ties still really _meant_ something. They defined a person's place in the world and were a safety net against uncertainty.

Once their course had been decided on and the wheels set to turning on the way they would get there, Yuka felt freer to turn her attention to other things. Their supplies would keep but it might be a good idea to have at least a little of the local currency, but a small fishing village in the back of nowhere in Tai was hardly likely to have a pawnshop. She very, very cautiously broached the matter with Sen, who had turned out to be a fount of practical wisdom.

"Suppose I wanted to sell some jewelry and receive a fair price in exchange, where would I look to sell?" she asked cautiously.

Sen looked over at her silently for a long moment and with a small shrug said

"In small towns and villages, you'll get barter. A Village elder keeps a fair weight and some coin for traveling pedlars and the like. Often times the sea blows up some trinkets of value on the coast..."

That last was said with heavy emphasis and Yuka smiled at the silent help the woman was giving her. If anyone were to ask, that was where Yuka had come by the jewelry she wanted to sell.

"And we use the weight to tell how much coin a given trinket is worth. I wouldn't put all your coin in one purse of course and don't ever keep your most valuable coin in a place that is easily accessible. Likewise you don't want to put it in a place where a robber would automatically think to ask for it in such a situation. Use your pack only if you must, that's the first place they look. A small pouch at your waist with the smallest curerency, tucked safely on the inner lining of your sash is customary. Another pouch on your person with all of your truly valuable coin is advisable."

"Someplace like, on my upper arm, or around my upper thigh?" Yuka guessed.

"Good places, you're already thinking like a sensible traveler," Sen said approvingly.

Sen went on to give her other sensible advice for travel, like what was a good price to pay for a nights lodging at an in, how to avoid getting cheated by sharpsters, how to guard against pickpockets, and, when Yuka asked, where good places to find second-hand clothing would be. Yuka didn't know how she could ever repay the woman for the immense kindness she had shown Yuka and Kaname.


	7. Book I: Path of Sorrows: Chapter 6

Yuka stretched and warmed up her muscles in the chill dawn air. She was wrapped in her thick fleece poncho with her clothes on under her, but she knew that she'd warm up as she exercised. The hinma that the kirin of Kou had granted her in order to learn to fight the last time she had been in that world had trained her muscles and reflexes in the warriors arts, but after she'd returned, Yuka had taken up her own study. It was one thing to have something merely given to her, and another thing to develop her own strength as well, Yuka wanted something of her own to stand on, and she didn't want to be helpless ever again.

:I've come a decent way,: she allowed herself. :But I still have a lot to learn. I only hope that the skills I have will be enough to protect Kaname while we are on the road.:

Hence the extra training...

Escrima was not a martial art that was mainly slow movements or stationary poses, it was a vigorous dynamic style with a lot of light quick movements. She started usually with a series of warming stretches based on yoga (one thing that she and her step mom actually managed to have in common for once) and then moved on to practicing her footwork; hook-steps, advances, shuffle-steps in patterns both clockwise and counter-clockwise then she added in body-weaving techniques, still concentrating on her lower body movements to get her heartrate up. Then she took a bamboo stick she had found and adjusted for the purpose and added in the basic hand movements against a post in square stance, not moving anywhere, linar strikes for head, temples, collarbones, ribs, knees and feet then repeating the linear strikes with rodunda strikes, two of each still stationary against a stationary target. She then added on the delicate "taps" for wrist-movement strikes against targets, where her arm was extended but the power came from highly controlled wrist movements. Next the disarms, where she slipped in to disarm an opponent, or, with the right leverage, take him down completely or put him in a lock hold.

When Yuka felt sufficiently warmed up with the basic stationary exercizes she put the various movements together into patterns. She combined linear and curving strikes into patterns that attacked, blocked and countered all the while keeping her body moving, weaving in and out of the way with her foot movements, forward, back, turn, reverse, advance, retreat to the side, retreat to the back. Her strong arm wove in and out fluidly; full extension, tucked in, relax the wrists... the stick a constant blur of motion as her body moved in and out of the patterns. Always her empty arm was moving. Escrima was not fencing where they couldn't seem to decide what to do with an extra limb, when her stick was at full extenstion attacking her opponent, her off arm was tucked in close, ready for the block, when her stick blocked, her other arm darted out, going for the disarm, her hands constantly circling each other. After three patterns at a liesurly pace, going for accuracy, Yuka picked up the tempo and made the patern more complicated with more controlled wrist movements, more rodunda strikes to give her a real work out. By the time she was satisfied with herself for the morning, she was usually covered in a light sheen of sweat and interested in a quick dip in the nearby river. It was never very pleasant, but it was the best she got in a place with no indoor plumbing.

Kaname sometimes came and watched her morning practice. He could admire how fluid her movements were, almost like a dance but in no way was it decorative. They both knew without having to say it out loud that what she practiced with renewed intensity every morning would probably be called upon to save thier lives later. Yuka sort of wished that she would have had a little more time to learn more. She had advanced quickly, mainly due to her own athletic ability and the intensity (goaded by the memory of being helpless in this world) and effort she put into her training but she had still had only a little over a year to study it. To pick up an entire style from scratch, even with a lot of practice, that wasn't as long as it sounded. There were still many more advanced techniques that she had not had the chance to learn yet, and in this situation they would have to remain unlearned. What she had would have to be good enough.

It was a week of learning the ins and outs of life in a fishing village. Yuka had grown up in a big, impersonal city so the ways and mentality of a small rural community was a closed book to her. People were people no matter where one went, and like anywhere else they had thier rivalries and thier cliques, their ways of judging socially acceptable behaviour and their ways of celebrating the particular patterns of their lives. Yuka had never once imagined herself going to a village potluck but Kaname had been all for it and had dragged her along whether she liked it or not. There was food and lively music and dancing (and Yuka did indeed find that they had something that was near exactly like the violing she was used to). Every person there recited an impromptu poem or song about something that had happened in thier lives recently, and they all sang the Song of Kings, a blessing and entreaty to the gods that the kirin of Tai would pick a ruler who "would reign a thousand years" with beneficence, wisdom and charity. Kaname had gotten a little emotional around the end and Yuka had silently put an arm around him to comfort him as an older sister might comfort her younger brother.

It was something of a cultural shock to her, she had known that the world they lived in was different, but the last time she'd been there she had been outside of the system and not pulled into the life of a simple village community. There were tears and there was laughter, they all shared the sorrow of their times filled with danger and uncertainty, but stoicly kept on with their lives, despot king or no despot king. As Sen had put it, the tide still came in and the tide still went out. babies were born, Elders were taken, families still needed to be fed and winter staved off. Who sat on a throne hundreds and hundreds of miles away had little effect on the sea. It was probably that sort of thinking that had gotten them and thier ancestors through many a difficult king.

The work they learned in thier time waiting for Sen's nephew Darin to arrive to take them to the port city was the owrk that was common to an ordinary citizen. They learned about their way of life, thier philosophy and they way they veiwed the world and felt about thier place in it. It was different world entirely from what Yuka and Kaname had grown up accustomed to. Thier days had always been ruled by the meticulous tick of the clock counting out the hours and minutes they would perform one function and got to or be at a specific place. The acverage life of a peasant in the world of the Twelve Kingdoms was ruled by the rising and setting of the suns, by the shifting of tides and the changing of the seasons. At first it seemed unusual not to have to worry about "from this time to this time I have to eat breakfast" and "from this time to this time I have to study math" and "I have to be at the station by this time to catch the train, so I have to leave by this time exactly". Life seemed more leisurly, though Yuka and Kaname both were absolutely certain that neighter of them had ever worked so hard in all of thier lives!

There was cleaning and tending and making and mending; fish were to be caught und gutted, lunches and dinners prepared, housework to be attended to. Yuka had stared at Sen in uncomprehending shock at the first time she told her that she was expected to wash the laundry by hand... in a tub! Never before had Yuka missed hot and cold running water from a tap so much as those time when she had to heat up water by the pot ful over the hearth, haul it over to a tub half-filled with soapy cold water and dump it in, then haul yet more water to repeat the process. And she hauled the water dialey, several times a day, to keep up with all of the washing that Sen felt was neccessry. There were no dishwashers of course, so all pots for cooking had to be scrubbed by hand, and a peasant didn't have more than one set of dishes for making and eating meals on, so each dish had to be washed immediately after it was dirtied to make it ready to use for the next meal. By the end of the day, Yuka's neck, back and shoulders ached painfully form all of the unaccustomed work. Sen had given her more than one look of disbelief when Yuka had been forced to admit that she did not know how to do something. As a consequence, she picked up sewing, as well as cleaning and gutting fish and hauling water among her skills. She did get better at cooking over a fire too.

If the villagers found Kaname's abhorrance of blood and general squeamishness to be a bit missish, they were generally too polite to give him greif over it... either that, or enough people had seen Yuka practicing her warriors arts in the morning and were aware of her devoted attachment to her "younger brother" that they weren't going to risk making her angry. Even though they had worked harder than they had ever worked in thier lives keeping up with the average life of a fisherman's family, they both found themselves a bit sad, and a little reluctant to leave, when Darin's ship the Kilike tacked into the little bay. They had grown fond of the close-knit family with so many siblings that they stumbled over each other in the mornings. Even breaking up the inevitable fights was something thet had found to be a new experience. Yuka had liked Sen's earthy good-sense and humorous advice on many subjects ranging from birth to death to childrearing. Life obeying the whims and dictates of the ever-chang9ing sea made uncertainty an certainty, and as a result most tended to have an earthy pragmatism about them, sensible and cautious. She found she was going to miss that for in that short a time Yuka had come to see Sen as a mentor and mother figure far better and more suited to her than her own. Kaname too had taken to life as an ordinary peasant citizen of Tai, even as he slowly seemed to awaken to his Other Self as the kirin of Tai, a fact which they kept carefully to themselves. He remarked to her one day that he believed spending time as an ordinary person would give him a greater persepective when it came to advising his lord.

"Gyousou-sama is a soldier," Taiki confided to her. "He acts like one and he rules like one, even though he had a deep understanding of what is best for people, and of the ways people think and act themselves. I think it would be good for someone in the court to know and truly try to understand the people from thier own point of veiw. When he makes a law about them, I'll be able to say something knowledgeable about it instead of just doing nothing and not understanding what's going on."

Darin, Sen's nephew and the "Captain" of the Kalike (if one could call a person a captian of a very small vessel that can easily be sailed by one person alone) was a handsome young man of about twenty or so. Yuka and Kaname would have both called him a sempai. He had the same dark brown hair and bright blue eyes characteristic features of that part of Tai and in that village, but along with that he had an open face and a warm and genial manner which he clearly was trying to cultivate into charm... as evidenced by the way he tried to flirt with Yuka on first seeing her. He stayed overnight for that evening with the agreement that they would sail with the morning tide and they spent the rest of the night catching up with family business (Sen's and Li's family were a bit wide-spread up and down the coast so Darin had plenty of custom if his work for the unnamed sea captain, smuggling people out of Tai and the despotic rule of the new king, fell through.

"It's a relief to finally be on our way!" Kaname said to Yuka as they stowed thier travel packs under the racks they were to try to sleep on in the tiny closet sized room on board the ship. The two of them offered to help but were told that they'd be in the way if they didn't know what they were doing as Darin set the schooner out to sea. It was a few minutes into the voyage when kaname discovered something terrible... he got seasick. Yuka was the picture of health, rmbling about on deck and investigating all of the nooks and cranies, asking questions of her captain about what this or that did and how it worked but Kaname spent most of the time slumped over the side of the rail or with his head in his hands curcled round his stomach.

"Hey, how are you feeling?" Yuka said about an hour into thier journey when poor Kaname had been reduced to miserable dry heaves.

"Are we there yet?" Kaname asked plaintively, looking just utterly wretched.

"Too bad I didn't think to bring some dramamine tablets or something," Yuka said sympathetically, patting him on the shoulder. "I didn't even think to bring asprin now that I think of it."

kaname couldn't reply, his stomach was trying to expel something that wasn't there.

"Well, just make sure you stay hydrated," Yuka said helplessly, offering him the water bottle with fresh water in it that she'd filled before she left. "You'll be in a really bad state of you get dehydrated, kaname."

"Ghlurk!" was Kaname's reply at the sight of the proffered water.

Yuka waited until the spell passed and tried again with the same result.

"Maybe you should go lay down and see if you can't just sleep through it," Yuka said after the fourth attempt to get him to drink something.

Kaname nodded wearily and she hauled him to his feet and supported him through the rocking and wavering motion of the ship and into the ships cabin where he collapsed onto the bottom bunk and curled up into a puddle of misery.

"The first think I'm going to learn to do afer we rescue his majesy is to get back my proper form so I'll never have to set foot on another ship ever again," Kaname mumbled.

Yuka smiled sympathetically and let him pillow his head on her lap. She ran her fingers soothingly through his hair, which was damp with sweat created by his sea-sickness. After a little while, Kaname at last fell into a sleep where his body's reactions to the sea could not reach him and Yuka left him there to hopefully sleep his way through the journey.

"How's your husband?" Darin asked jovially from behind the wheel as he slightly adjusted the course to take better advantage of the wind.

"He's my brother," Yuka corrected primly. "And he's fianlly asleep, poor thing."

"Some people just don't take well to the sea, as for myself, I don't think I've ever been sick a day in my life," Darin replied easily.

"That's good for you," Yuka replied politely.

Truth to tell, her people skills had always been a bit lacking. Most people didn't quite know how to take her sharp honesty or her abrasive personality, they usualy assumed she was subtly making fun of them, and perhaps they were right, Yuka had never seen the point in not making a truthful observation about a person if she felt they had it coming. Whether they benefitted from it or disliked her because of it was entirely up to them.

"Not big on polite conversation are ya?" the young captain observed.

Yuka grimaced a little.

"That obvious, is it?" she said dryly.

"Only a lot," Darin chuckled. "That's alright, I like a woman who speaks her mind and has a spine. It makes them interesting. As far as I'm concerned, the sea is no place for the weak and delicate, and I always judge a person by the sea."

"So then you don't like my brother I take it," Yuka scowled at him.

"Don't get yer wind up woman," Darin said with a disarming smile. "Got a temper like a summer squall, you do."

Yuka narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously, Darin's grin widened.

"And there's the warning lighning, guess I'd better find a safe harbor ta tack into. I think I like you fer that."

Yuka unconsciously pursed her lips and raised an eyebrow, trying to decide where he was going with the flattery.

"Just because Kaname's my brother and I'm not married, doesn't mean I'm looking for what I can get, Mister Darin," Yuka said a little sharply. "If that's your aim, you'd better sight it somewhere else."

Darin mimed a blow to his heart.

"I've seen my auntie gut a fish with more mercy, woman!" he said, laughing.

"I have a name," she replied with a repressing tone, but she was smiling in spite of herself. Darin seemed like he was one of those people that had the effect on people.

"That name being?" he queried.

"You've already been introduced to me, and I don't like having to repeat myself," Yuka replied. "How long until we reach port?"

"We've a fine wind and a following sea," Darin answered in a conversational tone as he expertly trimmed the sail. "Since we sailed out on the earliest tide, and it's such a fine day for sailing, we should be there by high-sun."

Yuka nodded, and tried not to think about the last time she had been on a boat. It had been after her meeting with the former King of Kou and his unfortunate kirin. Kourin had used a hinma to change her face via an incredibly excruciating process that had felt like she imagined that dipping her face in acid might feel, so that Yuka would not be recognized and then sent her out to track down the "evil Kaikyouku" Youko Nakajima. Yuka had caught up to her on board a ship sailing to En and they had fought each other. Yuka's body had been controlled by the hinma that Kourin had placed inside of her (with her own consent) but Yuka's body had already been naturally athletic, and she had discovered that her body had absorbed most of the movements that the Hinma had used in that fight, the fights previous and following it.

:_With that second-hand... or is it first hand... do you call it second hand of first hand experience if it's your body, but you are not the one actually performing the moves_?: Yuka wondered to herself. :_Well anyway, after my exposure to that proffessional level of fighting skill and my own training in my own world I should be able to fight well enough to protect Kaname_. I hope:

Yuka knew well enough however that when it came to something important to her or someone she cared about the word "should" had no place in her dictionary. She had to believe with everything in her that she was capable, otherwise she'd start to second-guess herself, and hesitation in a fight like the ones she would be facing would cost her her life, and worse, Kaname's life.

:_I won't lose_,: Yuka commanded herself, closing her eyes and concentrating her attention inwards. :_It is not a matter of try or want, it is a matter of will and must. I won't back down, I won't step back, I will move forward_.:

Of course this was not the first time she'd used those words to push herself into doing something she was afraid of. Yuka had terrible stagefright, especially when she'd been younger, but the only way her father and her new step-mother had ever given her the least amount of attention was when she won. Her father had wanted a prodigy with the violin and if Yuka had not been born with such a gift naturally, then she would manufact it by working her fingers to the bone. The musical world, even for a young one, was as cuthroat and viscious as any cometition and it took a certain kind of mentality to succeed in such an environment.

:Too bad all of that training never gave me any real people skills,: Yuka thought with a slight tinge of regret.

If there was ever anything that could make a girl cynical and anti-social it was the back-stabbing world of beauty pageants where a person could never really trust anyone around them. The nice girls got eaten alive before the qualifiers, the only ones who won were the ones who were willing to claw thier way to the top regardless of anyone else around them.

:And people wonder why I'm such a bitch,: Yuka thought to herself with an internal headshake.

It was one reason why she had gotten so badly picked on by her classmates at school. Having been exposed to the sort of back-stabbing machinations that went on in a heavilly competitive environment, yuka had little time or patience for falsity and she could see it all around her. They way people bowed thier heads to each other then whispered about them behind thier backs, the way people used groups and rumors and cruel humor to bully and manipulate other people, all of it had just made her sick. Sadly, while Yuka could read people easily (the result of assessing her competiton and psychologically manipulating them to lose beofre they ever even got out on stage... a good tactic to use if she wanted to win) she couldn't approach them or engage them in ways that came across as ingratiating or charming, usually Yuka came off as verbally abrasive or plain bitchy.

:_But I have to admit that I was mostly to blame for my own isolation_,: Yuka admitted. :_Youko was right when she pointed out that I was shutting people out by burying myself in my books. I didn't even try to make friends. Maybe it was because I didn't want to be a hypocrite, but writing everyone else around me off without even giving them a chance to try and be friends with me is not the way to go either. And she was right to call me on it_.:

When they'd been students, Youko had been nice to her, but she hadn't talked to Yuka anyplace where anyone else could see them together. They'd never eaten lunch together or hung out after school, they hadn't had club activities together, so again Yuka had come to think that their friendship was all only in her head and it had hurt her. She had such a hard time letting people in in the first place.

:_I think our relationship was always destined to end badly_,: Yuka thought with regret. :_Just like all of my other ones it seems_.:

But now she had Kaname! No-one else seemed to like him much because he unnerved most people. Even his own family felt there was something otherworldly about him. Yuka knew why he was the way he was though and that gave her a way to understand him in a way no-one else would. She also knew that he wouldn't hurt her, as a Kirin emotional violence was just as valid a form of abuse as physically striking someone, and his nature was against it, so Yuka could really trust him with all of her heart and know that he would never stab her in the back. For the first time in her life she had a real friend. One she knew would never hurt her, or deprive her of affection, one she could trust her heart to. She didn't love Kaname in the sense that she wanted a physical relationship with him, but she did truly love him. Yuka would do anything for him, give her life to protect him because she was the one person she could give her heart to and know that she wouldn't have yet another piece of it ripped out and eaten.

:_No matter what happens, no matter how dangerous it is or what I have to face, I'll protect Kaname. I swear it_!: she promised herself.


	8. Book I: Path of Sorrows: Chapter 7

The port city of Kaien was not what Yuka thought of as a city, certainly. All of the buildings seemed low and thick compared to what she was used to, and there didn't seem to be nearly enough of them to constitute what she thought of as a city.

"I guess this would be a city in a world where there just aren't as many people," she murmured to herself.

"When I was here last time," Kaname added. "I didn't get to travel around much like this, I was always being watched over. I was on Mount Hou in Brushjar Palace for most of the time, and then after I chose Gyousou-sama I spent most of my time in the palace except for the diplomatic mission to Ren, and even then I spent almost all of my time inside the palanquin. There was one time I went out exploring Kouri but that was with Risai and Goy-sou-sama."

"I spent almost all of my time out and about, it can be pretty nerve-wracking when you don't know where your next meal is coming from though," Yuka said.

"My home port is this place too, so if you're ever looking to find me for a hire, you can usually find me at the Cloudbreaker, it's a pretty well known tavern frequented by my sort on the west side," Darin told her. "I do hope you'll come and find me again, Miss Yuka."

The special way Darin tried to catch and hold her eyes communicated wordlessly that he was hoping she'd look for him for _other_ reasons than his employment. Yuka rolled her eyes.

"We may need to hire you again," Kaname replied, either oblivious to (or simply ignoring) the by-play.

"Thank-you for your assistance," Yuka said, a little stiffly. "My brother and I had best be on our way if we are going to find accommodations for us and settle our business here quickly."

"There's an inn off Threadneedle Street, one that caters to cloth-merchants, that has clean rooms and reasonable rates. There's even a bathouse down the street, though I warn you that the proprietor of that place doesn't like women. Tell Kelma, the proprietress of the inn, that Darin of the Kalike sent you."

"Thank-you again for your help," Kaname said as Yuka wordlessly shouldered her pack.

"C'mon Kaname," she said. "We have a lot still to do."

Kaname smiled a little at Darin and the young man shook his head looking a little amused. When the kirin caught up with Yuka he said

"I think he _likes_ you."

"I think he sees a young woman traveling on her own and is interested in seeing what he can get. He strikes me more as the sort to enjoy a challenge than the reliable kind."

"Maybe," Kaname said in reply to her tart rejoinder. "But I also think you never give yourself enough credit."

Yuka looked blankly back at him. Kaname, who was unable to avoid being aware of peoples reactions to Yuka, just shook his head.

"If you're not aware of it, then it doesn't do any good for me to tell you. It's something you have to be able to see for yourself."

"Okay," Yuka said with an indifferent shrug.

The strange turn of conversation didn't seem to have anything to do with her plans for the rest of the day so Yuka wasn't too interested in it.

"I guess since he recommended it, we'll try getting a place to sleep for the night at that inn he told us about," Yuka decided. "If we're really lucky, there will be a second-hand clothes market nearby and we can get clothes for ourselves that won't stand out."

Sen had also told her about that. Yuka clearly didn't have the skills to make her own clothes or the wherewithal to hire a tailor right then, so she should probably do what most of the common laborers and working class people did in the cities and villages, and that was to buy second-hand clothes from a market and remake them to fit herself.

"This place isn't nearly as hard to get around in as Tokyo is, but I wonder how they know where they are and where they are going if none of the streets have streetsigns on them," she remarked to her "brother."

"I doubt that having street signs would do any good," Taiki replied a little dryly. "I think that most people are illiterate here anyway, and the ones who are educated, generally have enough money to hire a rickshaw or buy a mount."

"I guess that's a good point," she said after thinking about it.

"As for the problem of knowing where they are, I think most people just sort out the streets by function," he added as they passed a small market square where two portly housewives were squabbling over a head of cabbage.

After a few more turnings and wanderings they found a relatively well-tended street lined with shops that had houses built above them and signs that depicted needles and spools of thread or bolts of cloth or balls of yarn and knitting needles. One sign on a corner nearby depicted what looked like a pie or a bowl of soup and a bed.

"Think this must be the place," Yuka remarked.

Kaname nodded agreement and the two of them walked into the inn. It was a bit different from what Yuka was accustomed to thinking of as a hotel, where there was a desk and a receptionist who gave them a key and rang for the bellhop. The door opened out onto what looked to be a common room. There was a long bar at the back of the farthest wall and a fireplace on both the right side and the left side of the room. Instead of private tables and chairs there was a long wooden table with benches in the middle of the room and smaller tables settled along the walls. A thin herring-boned woman with a sharp eye and a voice like a crow greeted them.

"We heard this was a good place to spend the night,"Yuka said, hoping to get on her good side right away. "Darin sent us."

"Humph! I suppose he hasn't sent you to settle his tab, young raskal," the woman said sharply. "And I don't take in charity cases, you'll be paying me half in advance."

"Wow, _there's_ some customer service for you," Yuka muttered.

Kaname shrugged and gestured her forward. Yuka pulled out the spare purse that held the least amount of coin and jingled it once, just curious to see what the woman's reaction would be. It was almost comical how suddenly she changed from wary and suspicious to as close to welcoming as Yuka suspected she was ever likely to get.

"It'll be five silvers for a night," she was informed hastily.

Yuka blinked in surprise. She wasn't terribly widely traveled and didn't know a whole lot about the money system of this world, but she had traveled enough to know what the average cost of bread, clothing and various sundries she'd had to purchase for herself last time cost.

:_And if a merchant had to spend that much every night he wanted to travel_,: Yuka thought sensibly to herself, tallying the numbers in her head. :_He'd never be able to afford to sell his wares_.:

She had the sneaking suspicion that this woman was trying to take her for a gull.

"I think that's a little more than we're looking to spend," Yuka said firmly.

"That's for my best room, and it comes with laundry, and board included," the proprietress said sharply.

"Well then, how about your second-best room, and we can find food for ourselves," Yuka haggled.

The laundry they would keep, Yuka didn't know the area well enough to know who would be a repudable place to entrust with thier clothes and who wouldn't.

"Three and a half silvers," was the prompt reply. "You and your..."

"Brother," yuka supplied.

"Brother, then," the proprietress said. "Can have a private chamber and your own sleeping accommodations. There's a bathouse down the way."

:T_hat sounded like a not-very-subtle hint_,: Yuka grumbled inside her head.

Yuka shared a glance with Kaname. Three and a half silvers was cutting more deeply into her meager travel funds. Though they still had quite a few of the larger pieces of jewelry that Yuka could still sell, they had just started on their journey and had a lot of work still left to do.

"I'm not sure we can afford that this early in," Yuka whispered to him. "Every coin we spend now is less we will have later."

"And she's actually not being honest about the price," Kaname admitted reluctantly.

Yuka could tell he was torn between his kirin need to tell the truth, and his desire not to harm anyone even by implication. Sometimes the truth hurt. But, that did give Yuka some leverage to bargain with.

"I would be willing to pay seven coppers for a night's stay, four for the laundry and a further three for food."

"You rob me blind!" the proprietress replied, but there was a small smirk hovering about her lips that said that Yuka had passed her strange little test. "A silver for a night, seven coppers for laundry, and seven for the food."

"A full silver for the night," Yuka conceded.

After looking around her she had decided that the place was up to her standards of cleanliness and didn't really want to risk some of the other standards of the other innkeepers who might not be as fastidious as she. "But only two for the laundry and three for board."

The mistress of the inn gave her a long penetrating look and nodded. Yuka opened her coin purse, carefully counted out the equivalent of half of the coin she had agreed upon and handed it over to the proprietress who made if disappear as if by magic. The old woman turned sharply on her heel and gestured her guests to follow her up a narrow rickety wooden stairway to one side of the left fire-place and down a narrow hall to the third door which was opened with a copper key and she gestured them to go in.

As rooms went it wasn't anything to brag about. It was very small and cramped, nothing at all like the rooms in even a modest hotel that Yuka was accustomed to. There were two narrow futons laid out on raised wooden frames with two chests for storage at the foot of each. There was no fire place but one wall did seem to emanate heat from the brick of the chimney and there was a very very narrow window to let in light that closed with a wooden shutter. For the standards of the place she was in, Yuka thought that it was decent enough.

"Thank-you very much, we'll leave our travel packs here if you would please lock up behind us," Yuka said.

No-way was she trying to carry everything on her back as she wandered about the city looking for things, there was a good chance they'd get robbed of everything they owned.

Yuka and Kaname grabbed out one of the smaller cache's of jewelry covertly so the woman wouldn't see what they carried on them and think to help herself, and deposited thier belongings in the trunks which the old woman, as a gesture of good faith, locked herself right in front of them and handed them the key. They bowed to her in thanks and made their exit.

"There's still plenty of daylight left, what do you want to do first?" Yuka asked. "Pawn the jewelry or look at clothes?"

"Jewelry," Kaname said.

Typical guy, anything he could do to get out of clothes shopping...

They meandered around for a bit, getting a feel for the city. One thing was for certain, the citizenry was on edge. The streets were regularly patrolled by mean-looking toughs in black uniforms and wherever they were found smiles were strained, people glanced nervously around and clearly tried to act normal. When a person was detained by a pair of the guards over what seemed to Yuka to be some minor infraction people in the surrounding area looked down and away, pretending they couldn't see, as if by doing so they could keep it from happening to them.

:_I'd call them cowards except that I'm a little sure that these people have no real concept of revolution_,:Yuka thought with a little pity. :_Everything is ordained for them by the will of heaven, and if they have a terrible ruler then they have only to wait him out and the heavens will give them another one._:

There it was, the kink in the system, _complacency_. Yuka thought that she much preferred her home's style of government... in no way was it perfect but at least she got some say in how things were run.

:_I wonder what those distant heavens think of this situation_,: Yuka thought to herself.

Technically the king was still alive, even if he was not on the throne, perhaps they all thought that the current style of rule, which went against some of Heaven's Law ,she was sure, was ordained by the rightful king instead of a usurper that was keeping him locked up.

:_If that is the case, then they would definitely feel that the king is ruling against their Law and then Kaname_...:

Yuka looked worriedly over at her friend, wary of any sign of illness that could herald the onslaught of Shitsudo for him.

:_If we don't rescue and restore the rightful king soon, Kaname could be the one who suffers for it_,: Yuka thought in distress.

There was no time for wandering around now. Yuka picked up the pace and made for the nearest pawn shop she spotted. Kaname was left to catch up, wondering at her new sense of urgency. Yuka didn't feel like explaining to him right then, she'd get as much done as she could with the remaining daylight, and they'd hopefully start out tomorrow or the next day for Shin Province.

:_We just have to find him_,: Yuka thought. :_I won't let what happened to Kourin happen to my friend. I won't_!:


	9. Book I: Path of Sorrows: Chapter 8

The relatively recently enthroned regnant Queen of Kei, former Youko Nakajima now Seikishi, _should_ have been surprised to see the Ever-King of En turning up on her doorstep without all the appropriate ceremonies and ambassadorial visits and usual courtly carryings-on. She should have been surprised, perhaps, but she was not. Even if the Ever-King wasn't already somewhat infamous for haring off to investigate matters personally instead of leaving the intelligence-gathering to a trained underling the two kingdoms had more a neighborly kinship between them. First of all, both of the rulers were Taika, no matter how separated in years, and secondly, both of them had less and interest in pomp and circumstance than perhaps their ministers would prefer. So while their ministers might have wanted to make a greater fuss about a State Visit from the Ever-King of En, Youko and the aforementioned King of En were more inclined to a nice cup of tea and some friendly conversation.

The garden they were in was in the west wing of the inner palace, the blossoming trees growing over the tranquil koi pond with its decorative bridges and stone lanterns were had less blossom and more leaf as the plant turned from spring to summer. Youko still sometimes had a hard time believing that she lived in such a lovely place; something this grand where she was from would either be public land or part of a museum. She kept half-expecting to walk into a gift shop or a taiyaki stand.

"The Minister of Winter might not be so wild about the idea," Youko said with some humor, when Shouryu came round to real purpose of his visit. "But fortunately for you he doesn't actually have any say in how and when I wield the Suigutou. I've never actually met the kirin of Tai, but Keiki has, so hopefully between us we should be able to locate him for you."

"I hope so," Enki replied. "The situation in Tai has been getting worse and worse by the year, with no perceivable way to fix things. En can handle its share of refugees, but frankly we're both worried about how things stand there."

"Gyousou Saku of Tai seemed a sort of king who had a good chance of sorting Tai out," Shouryu seconded. "It worries me what sorts of things a man with the ability to usurp the throne of a guy like that might be up to. Whatever it is, it can't be good."

"I agree," Keiki replied with his customary sobriety. "I too had once met the king that Taiki anointed and I came away with the impression of a ruler who was capable of mastering even so wild, rugged and difficult a kingdom as Tai is reported to be. The youma grow worse every year and I worry for my young comrade Taiki. I have since news of his having gone missing. Had I not had my own concerns in Kei I would have searched for him."

"If that is so," youko said, secretly a little pleased at haing something at last that she could do to help out her kirin.

It saddened her a bit that thier bond and king and kirin was still in that somewhat awkward getting-to-know-you phase. There were some days when she sort of whimsically thought that she and Keiki's relationship sort of resembled an awkward mi-ai, or matchmake, but in thier case it was more like a blind date for life and that life was expected to stretch on for centuries. Sadly Yuoko had to keep those observations to herself; she certainly couldn't tell Keiki about them, Suzu and Shokei, while they might understand a little might also be tempted to do something about it and Youko could not see any little scheme they might hatch up ending in anything other than awkwardness. Rakushun was understanding, even sympathetic, but he also told her that she might be best advised to listen to her kirin on matters of palace protocol. She valued the advice in the spirit it was given but the essential awkwardness in her relationship with her kirin remained unchanged.

:_I suppose it is to be expected,: _Youko thought with an internal sigh._ :We are too alike in some ways and too very different in others_.:

Coupled with that was the fact that they each seemed to see their relationship a little differently than the other. While Youko very much did not hold any romantic regard for her stiff and overly formal kirin, she wanted to at least be able to speak with him on friendly terms. There was no doubt that they shared a tenuous respect for each other but Youko wished she could have a more casual, friendly relationship. The sort of relationship like a brother or an older best friend, the sort of relationship where she could walk up to him and ask him for advice and not feel awkward about it. Keiki seemed to see their relationship as ruler and kirin to be closer to Buddha and his attendant. He placed her on a pedestal even as he chided her about being to familiar with her servants, forbade her from exercising her particular style of common sense when it interfered with tradition, and lectured her about Queenly decorum.

:_I actually think much of the reason he is so stiff and formal, and still trying to keep me at arms length, has a lot to do with his former queen,_: Youko couldn't help thinking to herself.

The former queen had conceived and infatuation for her kirin (which Yuoko found to be more than a little strange, certainly his human form was handsome enough but... he was a kirin). That infatuation had twisted her probably already tenuous mental stability, causing her to twist with jealousy and try to exile every woman from Kei. Keiki would have been unable to stop the decree no matter how he admonished his queen. Yuoko could see and understand how such a tragic circumstance would bring about a great deal or reticense when it came to drawing close to another person, particularly his ruler and another queen. It seemed that Yuoko had inherited more messes from the former queen of Kei than just a willful court and problems with her ministers and provincial lords. The sad thing was, Youko had little idea how to go about restoring her kirin's ability to draw close to others when, by all accounts, he had never exactly been gregarious to start with.

:Still, every little thing I can do to make him feel more at ease with me, and have more confidence our ability to work together towards a common goal will build our relationship as ruler and adviser, and queen and kirin up more steadily,: Youko thought optimistically.

She knew she was in this one for the long haul, but she was willing to put just as much effort into building a steady relationship that the heart of the throne could have confidence in as she was going to put into building a stable rule that her people and ministers could have confidence in.

Keiki and Youko joined hands, Keiki focusing his thoughts on the one they sought and Youko focusing her thoughts on bringing up an image of the one Keiki sought. The image that showed up in the reflective surface of the sword surprised them all.

"Sugimoto?" Youko gasped in surprise.

Showing in the surface of the blade, like images on the screen of a modern television, was a young man with soulful deep grey eyes and a demeanor that seemed anxious and overly self-conscious. Having once worn a similar expression for every waking moment of her life, Youko could easily recognize the symptoms of almost crippling shyness in another. Walking next to him along a rough, partially cobbled (but mostly dirt-track) road walked Yuka Sugimoto, Youko's former schoolmate.

"I know I _should_ be surprised," Youko said with wry humor. "But somehow, I'm not."

At a mental command the sword fast-skipped back through time, like hitting the rewind button on a recording, to show the events thus far that had landed the two of them back in the proper world they belonged in.

"I wonder if we should thank her for it, or scold her for it," Shouryu added next when the sword showed how Yuka had all but Kirin-napped Kaname Takasoto from the other world and brought him kicking and screaming into this one.

"She always has been one to love an adventure," Keiki noted.

Clearly he was recalling his first encounter with Youko's adventurous young friend, in which he had forced the sword Suigutou on an unwilling Youko Nakajima who had begged him to take it back because she wanted noting to do with him and certainly nothing to do with slaying monsters. Yuka had stood up forthrightly and said "Give it to me and I'll do it!"

"At least we know he's in the hands of someone who doesn't mind a little bit of danger in the interests of getting the job done," Shouryu said with an avante garde shrug. "She was here last time a throne got restored so at least she has some experience to draw on."

"I think you're all forgetting something," Youko cautioned. "Yuka's moral compass doesn't always point due north."

She was alluding, of course, to the fact that she had taken up ties with the king and kirin of Kou and become a pawn in thier plot to weaken Kei by assassinating Yuoko and keeping her off ther rightful throne in order that Kou would not have a nation stronger than it on its borders.

"Have a little faith," Enki encouraged. "She's not so bad."

"She's supposed to be at home," Youko said flatly.

:At home, finishing up high school and marrying and having ten kids like I can't have,: Youko added to herself.

That had been a somewhat silent pact between them, that Yuka would return and live out the life that Youko could no longer have but had once wanted for herself. She shook her ead at her own musings and returned her attention to the images playing on Suigutou.

Taiki looked concerned and dejected about something, they couldn't quite tell what since the reflections in the blade did not carry sound in this instance. Yuka patted him comfortingly on the shoulder and gave him a bright smile and an encouraging nod, clearly trying reassure and motivate him to do his best. Kaname smiled back a little bit wanly, but seemed encouraged nontheless.

"See?" Enki said, in customary kirin fashion he wanted to believe the best of everyone. "She's clearly helping him this time."

"In that case, maybe we can find his king for them and save some trouble?" Youko said hopefully.

When she and Keiki tried concentration on the image of the Royal Tai however, the sword rippled and then misted over, revealing nothing.

"It sometimes does that when Keiki or I don't know the person well enough to get a sense of them," Youko said dejectedly after a third attempt.

"It's good that you tried," Enki said. "Even if we didn't learn where the usurper must be keeping the Royal Tai, we did learn something useful. Taiki is back in this world and trying to find him. That alone is enormous progress!"

"I guess you're right," Youko replied. "All we can see however is that they are outside somewhere, they could be in any land anywhere, it's not like this sword shows their position on a map. I worry we won't be able to reach them in time with word _if_ we _do_ find something to help them with. And there's not an international postage system so we can't just send them a letter."

"They have to be in one discernible place in order to use a seichou," seconded the Royal En. "I guess the only thing we can do right now is try to keep an eye on things. There's one thing I do know about this though; with the way things in Tai are right now, if and when the Taiki finds his king, he's going to need some help to get things in order before the snows descend the mountains up there. I'm headed back to En to await a call to arms from my ally, and you should too Kei-ou."

"I guess that's all we can really do right now," Youko fretted. "I worry about leaving him in the care of Sugimoto, but in this case it looks like we'll just have to trust her."

"Lady Yuka's learned enough of a lesson the last time she was here to get things right this time around," Enki encouraged. "And Taiki tamed a toutetsu, I think between the two of them, they'll figure something out. You know how stubborn they are when it comes down to it."

Taiki had enough will to tame a legendary shirei and Yuka wouldn't listen even when she was wrong and partly _knew_ it inside. Youko had to content herself for now with the thought that they were stubborn enough to at least find their way to a good situation. She only hoped that they were not too stubborn to ask for help when they needed it.

* * *

**This chapter didn't exist until just recently, and I'm still not all that sure about it to be honest but I think it fits in well here and I think it needs to be here. The next chapter I'm even less sure of I'll have to think about whether I really want to put it in there or not but all the same I hope you enjoyed the post and tell me whether or not you think this one is missing anything.**


	10. Book I: Path of Sorrows: Chapter 9

"You sure got a lot done today Yuka," Taiki marveled as they spread their new belongings out on the bed along with the things they already had packed and Yuka tried to figure out a way to make them all fit properly.

"It was a stroke of luck," Yuka replied absently.

The first shady merchant-vendor (which Yuka would have called a pawn-shop owner) she had come across had tried to cheat her of a fair weight in coin so Yuka had been forced to demonstrate a little of her ability to convince the man that she was not someone he wanted to mess with. He had very grudgingly told over the right amount of coinage for the three trinkets (a gold necklace, a tennis bracelet and a plain gold ring) that Yuka had worn in to sell. It was at that very pawn shop that Kaname had stumbled across a violin, still in its case, from their world.

:_And now I know where all the socks that get lost in the dryer disappear to_,: Yuka thought with wry humor.

The merchant had been reasonable about getting rid of the instrument since no-one _he_ had ever encountered knew what it was or how to use it. They had an instrument that was a little bit (but really not very) similar called an nikon, it looked like an old fashioned erhu, that was a stringed instrument with a very long and thin neck and a base that was shaped more like a small drum. The instrument was set on the lap as the musician sat and played rather more like a violin that Yuka had come across was locked with a (rather cheap) combination lock on the case and it was clear that no-one on this world had dealt with such a strange mechanism or the even stranger (to them) materials that the case was made of for it was a thick, sturdy plastic case designed to travel well and weather all damage. The instrument itself, when she managed to finagle the lock open, was in very good shape. The wood was undamaged, the keys were intact, the bridge showed no sign of wear, the bowstrings still had all of their horsehair, and for a wonder the strings were all mostly intact. There were even extras along with some rosin in the case's "hidden" compartment. The penny pinching merchant still haggled with her, even over something he had no use for but Yuka talked him down to a reasonable price.

The remaining daylight had been spent rummaging through the nearby second-hand clothes market for suitable garments for the two of them to wear. It had been a bit of a trial, but they'd found articles that would do well. The weather was in the process of turning from early spring to summer, but even so it was still a tricky time of the year, it could be balmy one hour and then cold and pouring the next, necessitating that they have both cloaks and lighter clothes. The used clothing bins in the secondhand market were mostly picked through, but after looking at the sorry state of the people around her, Yuka realized she should not be terribly surprised. Tai was in a _bad_ way. Not many people had much in the way of food or warm clothes, and those that did were less than willing to part with them. Much of what made it into the bins were a short step above kitchen rags; they had tears in inconvenient places, and stains on them and were patched as a quilt if they weren't already more hole than cloth.

:_Poor kingdom_,: Yuka thought, looking around her with pity.

There were youma wandering the streets even in broad daylight. It was bad. The blackguard, for all that they were as much an enemy of Tai as any of the yuoma were (or at least symptomatic of the troubles in the kingdom) at least did their job in the area of disposing of the overlarge pests.

:_If we don't find that stupid king, Kaname's going to undergo shitsudou for sure_!: Yuka thought worriedly.

They had to get moving, and quickly. Yuka had thought when she'd landed that she and he might stick around in town for another day or two to possibly get a better sense of the lay of the land but after having moved about in the small city for even one day, Yuka could see that delaying was the last thing they wanted to do. Every day they delayed was another day that the rightful king of Tai was not on his throne, doing his job. The gods that ruled this world might decide that they'd had enough of the situation and that her kirin friend was just going to have to undergo shitsudo in order for the massive disaster that was his ruler's reign to come to an end.

Later that evening, Kaname was figuring out how to cut and resew the clothes they had bought at the marketplace to fit them. They had purposely bought clothes that were three or four sizes too large because both of them were fortunately very tiny and it was easier to refit than make from new (new clothes would stand out anyway). Yuka was busy sorting and repacking their travel items into two smaller packs instead of one large one.

"Will we be ready to leave in the morning?" Taiki asked.

"I don't see why not," Yuka replied. "We've only paid for the one night anyway and we both want to get going as soon as possible if we're going to find... your friend."

After seeing so many black guards roaming about the streets that afternoon, by unspoken mutual consent they'd decided to forgo any mention of the word "king" or Gyousou's name. The object was to keep a low profile.

After the new clothes were mended and seamed and the travel-packs packed with an equal distribution of weight and belongings including splitting the food supply and water canteens, Yuka got started on giving her new instrument a thorough cleaning. After the detailed inspection Yuka restrung and tested the keys; an old violin she'd once had, had had a key that was forever loosening and slipping out of key, making her have to pause in the middle of her practice and retune the string. She was a bit surprised to find herself so pleased when she discovered that the instrument itself was sound and in surprisingly good condition.

:_It's funny_,: she thought to herself as she warmed her fingers and the instrument up with the usual exercises. :_Back home I thought I hated this thing, but now it seems comforting, like an old friend._:

"Say!" Kaname said after hearing a short fast piece called Vivaldi's "Presto" from The Four Seasons. "You're really good!"

"I'm decent enough," she allowed with a small smile.

Kaname already knew something of how Yuka's father had determined that his daughter should be a nationally recognized concert violinist, and a child prodigy at that. Unfortunately for her, Yuka, while not tone deaf, wasn't the musical genius her father wanted either. She was always good, but no matter how she worked and practiced she was never quite great. She was good enough for second chair but when compared to a natural talent, that indefinable quality that made genius was somewhat lacking in her own playing. She could reproduce a peice cold, even add flourishes for a better sound, but sadly lacked the creative spark. Yuka was a technical player, with a very fine sense of the mathematics of a piece, but her appreciation was for technical perfection rather than something so unquantifiable as "beauty".

"I figured out something I can do, to help out along the way," Kaname said, pulling out a leather-bound portfolio with a number of loose sheets of paper and a small case of charcoal sticks. They were clearly from this world and not the other for the quality of the paper was not the same, being rougher with some flecks of plant pulp in them rather than the finely milled sheets that were created by machines on their world.

"If we stop in a good sized town, I can offer to make charcoal drawings of people just like people do at fairs and amusement parks on our world!"

It would be well to augment their supply of money as much as they could in case the rescue and information gathering mission went on longer than they intended or they had to look for him somewhere else. The jewelry she had brought along with her wouldn't last forever and there was always the chance that they might run into misfortune and loose some of it. That was one reason why Yuka had spent some money in purchasing the violin, that and the fact that they needed and easy cover story. Minstrels and players were known to travel just about anywhere, so seeing a wandering player would not cause too much curiosity about why they were traveling. She imagined that an artist might enjoy much the same freedom from being questioned.

"That's a good plan," Yuka said approvingly.

Kaname beamed at the praise, showing real spirit for the first time since she'd dumped him, ass over end, in this world. Yuka experienced the now-familiar sense of her conscience coming to plague her. Kaname was not the first boy she'd gotten embroiled in her own messes; Ikuya Asano, her boyfriend, would never have crossed over into their world if Yuka hadn't boldly insisted on tagging along.

:_I wonder if Youko has found him yet or not_,: Yuka mused to herself.

Probably not, for if she had, Yuka was pretty sure that Asano-kun would have been returned to the other world already. He wasn't there so he probably hadn't been found yet. Yuka tried not to spend too long staring at the dark ceiling that night after they went to bed wondering if they were really ready for this.

* * *

The former General Risai of the equally former Jou Provincial Army steadied herself against the side of her mount Hien and watched the valley below her intently. She had been months setting up this ambush, more specifically she had been months getting the correct intelligence in setting up this ambush. The former General Ansen of the Left Palace Guard, now pretender to the throne of Tai, had amassed himself an inconveniently large army. It was an army filled with the dregs of other societies, peoples whose home kingdoms would not take them in or who had skipped out for one reason or another. That was not to say that all of the soldiers were evil mercenaries (life couldn't possibly be that simple!) many of them were simply desperate people. Filling out the ranks of the foot-soldiers were farmers, fishermen and peasants of other kingdoms whose rulers had lost the Way and whose nations were going downhill. Risai had no idea why they would think that emigrating to youma-infested, frozen-over Tai was such a brilliant plan of action, but come they did.

:_It probably has something to do with economic concerns_,: Risai thought with a shake of her head.

Even if life in Tai was harsh, and the youma infested every corner of the land, the pay with Ansen's army was still good enough for a thrifty soldier to have a little bit to send home to his family. Soldiering was hard work, but if there was no other work available, a desperate man would risk his life on honest work if he was honest rather than shame his family by resorting to banditry. Not that there wasn't plenty of Banditry to go around...

:_And the other half of Ansen's Army are all Foresworn_,: Risai thought with a frown. She wondered what Ansen meant by employing them in his army, unless they were the ones who had helped put him on the throne in the first place.

She didn't like the look of them. They were a people who lived in Tai but who did not consider themselves citizens of Tai. In fact, they went out of thier way to make trouble for the kingdom and its citizens at every turn. They didn't even properly worship Tentei, but had thier own Gods! And they were fanatical in thier dsire to make bloodshed on thier gods behalves.

:_When Gyousou-sama was on the throne, they were little more than a nuisance_,: Risai thought as she watched a small contingent of Foresworn in their rough leather and fur armor escorting a messenger in a carriage. It was a high-ranked member of their society, summoned to the capitol by Ansen for an unknown reason. That messenger was carrying something important to Ansen's future plans.

:_What those future plans are, even Eishou doesn't know_,: Risai thought.

Out of Gyousou's loyal generals, only she and Gyousou had escaped the first purge of the military and any of the ones that followed after it. Since that time it had been five hard years on the run, ducking from village to town and hamlet, hiding, evading capture and somehow still managing to keep some small flame of rebellion alive. To do anything less would be to give up, and neither of them were willing to tip over the edge of despair. So, between the two of them, they'd kept of a small resistance. By mutual agreement it was something that was never a true, serious threat, more like a small annoyance. Their open rebellion was more of a distraction for their real quest, which was to gather as much information as they could and hopefully find their liege-lord and his kirin, wherever they might be.

It was constant game of cat and mouse because, while their rebel army might be a distraction, their attempts to perceive Ansen's ultimate plan were mixed at best. They didn't know where their king was, they didn't even have a hint. Their kirin might as well be on the moon for they knew. The castle, the court, and the countryside were all firmly under Ansen's control. Eishou had started what Risai could only think of as a youth program, but she didn't give very long odds of those "spies" of his hearing anything useful. Part of her thought he'd done it just to keep the kids out of trouble and let them live a little longer.

Risai, for her part, was sick of the constant hiding and sneaking around. She wanted to strike a blow against Ansen that he was going to feel. The information that that messenger was carrying was going to give her the means to do it. She was a warrior, not a spy, and it was time she took up her sword again!

"Now!" she yelled, signalling to the other rebels she had placed around the walls of the canyons.

The shoved down on the levers that would heave the boulders up out of the shallow hollows that Risan and the others had placed them in and the large rocks tumbled down the slopes, crushing and confusing the string of armed guards below them. The boulders were quickly followed by Risai and her rebel fighters. They rushed down the sides of the bottleneck and engaged the troops in a short but fierce pitched battle. Risai's heart sang as she took out the armed solders one by one, each time her blade met theirs and their bodies fell she could feel herself reclaimed a little of her own hope that perhaps all was not lost after all. In the way of battles it seems a few short moment later when all was still and a ragged cheer went up from her own fighters.

:_A victory_!: she exulted inwardly.

After so long a time of hiding like a rat in the woodwork of her own kingdom, she could at last straighten her spine and hold her head up. They had won!

Risai made her way over to the carriage to see what spoils she had gotten. If there was any more luck on her side, the messenger would not have committed suicide yet. She felt for the door of the carriage but it was stuck, so she wrenched at it, intent on tearing it open. To her surprise the entire side came off. Her eye widened at the sight of what was now obvious to her. It was not a carriage at all, but a cage! And it was empty, waiting for people to inhabit it.

"It's a trap!" she yelled out. "Scatter!"

Too late. Circling high up in the sky, so high that thier shadows would not fall on the world below, a host of Ansen's air troops swooped down to land higher above them on the canyon walls, bows strung and arrows aimed. Those who had listened to Risai's command and were running to the exits of the canyons were peirced with arrows.

"By order of Ansen, leader of the nation of Tai," the captain in the command of the air unit said. "You are commanded to throw down your weapons and surrender."

After all that successful time outwitting the clever former-general, it seemed that her time had at last run out.

:If I must go down, it shall be with a sword in my hands! Eishou, I leave you to carry on the fight!:

Risai, having nothing left to loose, and resigning herself to her fate, charged up to the nearest fighter, wanting to at least deal a blow against the enemy. Her world faded to black, quickly.

She never expected to wake again, but the jarring feeling of something being moved along the rough, uneven dirt and cobblestone roads that were what her kingdoms roads had devolved in the course of five harsh winters and springmelts without the constant care and supervision it took for the government to maintain them, woke her up. Her gaze was blurry at first, and her tongue at the back of her mouth felt thick and tasted sickly-sweet.

She sat up, ignoring the pounding in her head, and looked around her. She was inside the cage-wagon. A very small number of her comrades in arms were now her comrades in chains. The wagon was surrounded by Ansen's guard, with thier weapons pointed warrily at her.

"We're being taken to the capitol," Jakken, the sword-mate to her second (well, former) in command informed her. The familiar haggardness of loss and greif had worn his features in a matter of hours as her realized the loss of his lifemate.

"For execution?" Risai wondered.

She had honestly expected to die back there. Ansen had been hunting her for years, even since he had first made his coup. It made sense that he'd want er dead.

:_But I suppose it make equal sense that he'd want to be there to witness my death himself_.:

The man always had been one to gloat. That was one reason why, though he was talented with the ladies, Risai had never found him attractive even when they had been on good term under the command of King Gyousou (and even his predecessor).

_:So this is it, this is how hope dies..._: Risai thought numbly.

She'd at last been outwitted by him and there was nothing left for her but to pray that her death would be swift and that Eishou would somehow manage to succeed where she had failed. That he would somehow manage to find the king or Tai's Taiho and reclaim the kingdom.

:_It's spring now, but it all seems like a far away dream. I will never see the Tai that I had hoped to make. I will never see this kingdom happy and prosperous as it could be, thriving under the care of a good, true king. It's all going to disappear someday. The youma will eat up every man, woman and child in the lands until there are no more to pray for another on the ribouku. The harsh winter winds will come down from the north and freeze everything over and they will never recede. Tai will become a frozen, unihabitable wasteland to which spring will never come. Tentei has forasken us, or forgotten us. We will never know happiness again.._.:

Risai knew it in her heart. It was the end. Tentei had forsaken them, there was no future for her kingdom. Tai was doomed.

* * *

**Why the violin? It was never mentioned in the anime cannon, nor in any of the books, but looking at her in the anime, Yuka's posture was always _insanely_ good. Better than Youko's, who had more of a slumped posture due to her timidity, like she's always waiting for the next blow to land. I toyed with the idea of having Yuka come from a traditional background or an old family but in the end just decided to leave it kind of open. There is one thing I am pretty certain of about her though from observation of her character. The girl has daddy issues, or more like a subscription lol. So that'll play a part in the story later, character development ahead.**


	11. Book I: Path of Sorrows: Chapter 10

:_Kijyuu! No-wonder everyone wants one_!: Yuka thought to herself as she took careful aim once more with her bow and let fly another arrow.

The godzilla-sized mutant crow screamed and went down when her arrow pierced into its eye and lodged itself halfway into its head. She was glad that she'd had the foresight to loot the decaying corpse of the hunter-warrior she'd found along the side of the road. There were more than a few of them, sadly, but most of them were ordinary travelers. Yuka had chosen a ranged weapon on the basis that the farther Kaname was from any bloodshed, the better. She'd discovered to her surprise that she was actually a fairly decent shot (and that hunger was an excellent teacher).

"Are you okay back there Kaname?" Yuka called over as she scanned overhead to see if the youma had brought along friends.

Seeing none, she walked over to the dead youma and gingerly pulled her arrow out of its eye then wiped as much of the blood as she could off the head and shaft out of consideration for Kaname's sensitivity.

"It's okay, you can come out," Yuka called over. "I think the coast is clear now."

"Sorry I wasn't able to be of much help," Kanme said, looking guilty.

"It's not your fault," Yuka replied for what felt like the billionth time. "You're a kirin, it's just your nature, that's all. You're the only one who holds it against you, everyone else understands, so stop worrying about what you can't do and start thinking about what you can do. You're smart Kaname, I'm sort of counting on you to be the brains of the operation."

Yuka tried for a comforting smile and Kaname rewarded her with an attempt. It was sort of funny to see his usual expressionless poker-face trying to pull itself into a smile. They both got back on the road again and Yuka remembered again why she hated traveling in the old-school style, by foot... by the end of the day her feet _hurt_! Her whole body hurt, in fact, from the unaccustomed strain of carrying all of her worldly possessions on her back. There was no soft bed and hot bath or shower waiting for her at the end of the day either. They set up camp in the best place they could find and slept in thier clothes on the cold ground, huddled in ther cloaks to ward off the cold.

:_At least my campfire cooking is getting better_,: Yuka tried to cheer herself up with that thought but it really wasn't saying much. They ate plain rice at night and pancakes without syrup or anything to top it with in the morning... at least it wasn't burnt (usually).

"We've been on the road for three days," Kaname remarked.

"That merchant we encountered yesterday said that this is a usual spot for bandit ambushes so we should be careful," Yuka cautioned.

She walked now with her bow out and her arrows in easy reach just in case. If she was going to be ambushed she didn't want to be caught empty-handed, she had Kaname to protect after all.

"We should hopefully be there in another day or so," he replied. "All of this walking is making me tired, I don't see how people did it in the old days."

Yuka shared a commiserating smile with him. It seemed that her ancestors were tougher than she'd realized. She was about to make a comment on that when she heard a familiar twanging snap followed by a quick, short whizzing sound. Someone had fired an arrow at them. By Instinct Yuka turned to locate the source and discovered a blob perched on a tree-limb nearby. She pulled an arrow, sighted, and let fly in a motion that was becoming more familiar to her the longer she spent in this world. There was a scream of pain and the sound of crashing in the foliage. Yuka heard the sound of another person off to her left and pulled out another arrow, ready to fire at him.

"I think you're mistaken about the way this is supposed to go," a voice, deep and rough, called off to her right. "You give us your money and we spare your lives."

"Kaname get behind me," Yuka commanded, pulling back the drawstring and aiming for the sound of the voice.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," the voice cautioned. "We have three more bowmen to your one."

"Maybe," Yuka said trying to restrain the panic rising in her chest. "But I have no interest in giving you my hard-earned coin, bandit."

"You have some spirit in you woman, I'll give you that," the bandit replied.

There was a sudden thumping sound off to her left and slightly behind her. The speaker had just landed from his perch in the trees nearby.

"Eishou!" kaname cried out suddenly, apparently recognizing the man. The kirin started to run forward to greet him, apparently very glad to see the person.

"I told you to stay behind me!" Yuka snapped, scolding her friend as he rushed forward to greet the man he apparently recognized.

Eishou stared hard at Kaname for a long moment and Yuka took that opportunity to ready her bow and step between Kaname and the threat.

"Eishou, don't you recognize me? It's me! It's Taik-"

"Shhh!" Yuka hissed, elbowing him sharply in the ribs. "Don't just shout it out, you don't know who's listening!"

The bandit's eyes widened in disbelief as his face went white. He dropped to his knees almost as if he'd fainted and bent over in a kowtow on the spot.

"Tai Taiho! Your Eminence! I am... so happy to see that you are alive and well. Truly you have no idea what has been endured. We have looked for you, and for his majesty... we knew that you could not be dead. I am moved..."

Yuka would have thought of being suspicious on Taiki's behalf (silly Kirin thought the very best of everyone) but she could see that there were indeed tears flowing down his face, and the bandit, despite his rough clothes and demeanor seemed like one of those who would say "a man only cries three times in his life." Yuka was willing to go on a little faith. A very little.

"Who are you?" she demanded, still not setting aside her bow.

"I am currently called-" the man who had tried to rob them, whom Kaname called Eishou straightened and shook his head. "It would be best if we did not have this conversation in the middle of the road where anyone can overhear. Please, let me offer you the small hospitality of my camp."

Yuka raised an eyebrow skeptically and replied

"And we're supposed to trust you enough to let you lead us off into the woods after you tied to rob us?"

"I have been expecting one of Ansen's emissaries to travel down this road in disguise. He is supposed to be carrying valuable information. I figured on pretending to be a bandit in order to search that person. You were the first that I have seen traveling this road so naturally..."

"Huh..." Yuka said, not bothering to hide her dubiousness.

"Yuka, you can trust him," Kaname urged. "This man was, is, one of Gyousou-sama's most loyal retainers, and one of the very first to be promoted in the new ministry."

"So was the man who pulled him off the throne," Yuka rebutted. "I just don't think it's safe to trust anyone right now. You know this place is crawling with Ansen's black guardsmen."

"And there will be more of them the closer you get to Shin Province and the palace there," the bandit that Taiki called Eishou added, rising to his feet. "It sounds like we're after the same thing, to locate his majesty and bring him out safely."

Taiki and Yuka exchanged a long speaking look, Taiki urged her with his eyes to trust the stranger. Yuka remembered all too well what had happened the last time she'd trusted a stranger; she'd ound up working for the king of Kou.

:Still, this is Kaname's journey,: she though with grudging acquiescence as she reluctantly put away her arrows and followed him. :I'm just here to watch his back. I guess we'll play it his way for now.:

"As he said, this place is crawling with soldiers and he wouldn't just blurt that out if he wasn't earnest about helping us find the king. Of course it could be a ploy to gain our trust..." she warned him.

"Geeze, Yuka, don't you trust anyone?" Kaname chided her gently.

"Not right now I don't," she replied. "You know I'm only trying to keep you safe."

"That's a pretty senseless thing to say when it looks like the two of you plan on simply strolling into Ansen's stronghold and trying to find where he's hidden his majesty," Eishou interjected.

Yuka and Kaname exchanged another long glance, this time looking abashed. That was exactly what they'd tentatively planned on, but when he said it out loud like that it just sounded ridiculous.

"We could use the help of someone who knows this world," kaname hinted.

Yuka sighed a little and gave in.

"Fine, but if he tries to betray us I'll hunt him down and shoot him in the back," she replied. "You got that buster?"

"What is buster?" the bandit wondered out loud then shook his head. "Nevermind, come, we should go before someone else sees you."

"Between you and me," Yuka muttered to Taiki. "I'm a little bit disappointed that I didn't get to test my skill out on some bandits, I was kind of curious to know if I'm good enough to win now."

Taiki shot her a disbelieving look, Yuka winced and held up her fingers in a "small" gesture.

"But only a little."


	12. Book I: Path of Sorrows: Chapter 11

Eishou led them through a meandering route that took them around and back in on itself before stopping at an enormous oak tree and giving two short, sharp whistles. A crude ladder made of a single rope with thick knots tied in it was thrown down. Eishou started to climb it and after a long moment Yuka shrugged and went up first, still trying to keep Taiki safe in case it was an ambush.

Their little tree-fort camp wasn't much to write home about, a flat base of wood with thin hide-covered walls on three sides and a rain-shed was it, plus some small paraphernalia.

"My comrades and I are being hunted in every province throughout the kingdom. I've lost contact with most of them, but me and a very few others have built up a small resistance in between the time we've spent as refugees and ducking the guards," Eishou said.

Despite recent experience obviously having aged him, Eishou gave off the impression of youth. Yuka felt he wouldn't have been out of place in the halls of her own high school, well, minus the rakish mane and the movements that looked like he'd seen his share of battles.

"We just recently came back," Kaname said.

He looked like he would have gone on to tell the tale of their journey but Yuka nudged him hard. Rven if they were willing to trust this man, there was no need to mention names or places just in case they were wrong about him.

"Do you know where kana- er, um, Taiki's king is?" Yuka asked bluntly, not wanting to waste time on trivialities.

"I can tell you where he is not," Eishou replied. "We've looked in all of the better known prisons and found no trace of him. Last year a contingent of some of our best managed to sneak into the imperial palace to check the dungeons there, but unfortunately they were caught and publicly executed. Before they got the axe one of them managed to communicate to one of ours that there was no sign of him there. That just leaves the palace of Shin."

Yuka nodded, but felt compelled to ask

"Why wasn't that the first or second place you looked?"

"Because it was too obvious," Eishou replied a little defensively. "Ansen never does the obvious thing, he's subtle and clever. We figured that the last place he'd hide someone would be the first place that anyone else would go looking."

"Let's hope you're wrong about that," Yuka said. "Because Kaname and I are heading there to find him."

"Then I'm coming with you,' Eishou said quickly.

Yuka and Kaname exchanged a long speaking look, during which Kaname said that he'd be happy to have the company of a man he had trusted as Taiki and Yuka argued that she didn't know for certain if the man could be trusted and she didn't want to risk Taiki's safety in trusting wrongly.

"C'mon Yuka," Kaname pressed after a moment when it looked she was going to be stubborn as usual. "We're going to have to trust someone sometime. Neither of us know the local customs very well, everyone's on edge and we would probably end up tipping off one of those Black Guards about our strangeness sooner or later without someone to let us know what questions it was safe to ask. Besides, he's a soldier, chances are he's going to be good in a fight, we're probably going to need that before too long. He has every right and more than us to look for Gyousou-sama too."

Yuka considered it for a long moment then nodded, albeit reluctantly.

"I guess I can't deny that, and I hope it's not a mistake. Just so we're clear," Yuka said looking across the fire pit to meet the young former general's eyes squarely. "I am here to protect Taiki. I'm helping him find his king because that's what he needs to do, but if there's a choice to be made, I'll make the one that's best for Kaname and no other."

Eishou nodded shortly, accepting it.

"I'll send out a few of my spies to gather information tonight. They should be able to report something useful by morning," Eishou replied. "We'll make our plans after that point."

Though it was a small tree-top affair hidden deeply in the woods, the "bandit" camp was run as efficiently as any military camp. There were not row upon row of tents, but there was also not an army of soldiers either. Mostly the camp was filled with half-wild young boys, the sort who would never be content with a life of farming in their villages and bowing their heads to tax officials.

"This Eishou sure can pick 'em," Yuka muttered to herself after surveying the rag-tag group of somewhat scraggly youths, most of which were her own age and acted just like the ruffians and "high-school gang-leaders" from her old school back home. They strutted and boasted and tried to out-do one another in contests of skill and stupidity.

"I like to think of it as a preventative measure," a voice said from just off to her left.

Yuka tried not to jump out of her skin. She hadn't heard a rustle to announce any movement nearby nor had she seen him approach, he was just suddenly _there_ without warning! Eishou appeared from between two low, scrubby bushes.

"These boys would have caused their mothers to cry three years worth of tears when they were eventually hauled away by the Black Guard for terrorist activity. Most of them spent their time sneaking around government offices and setting fire to government grain silos. It can be tough to be a young man faced with so much injustice and be powerless to do anything about it, with me they get a positive outlet for their energy."

"And you get a spy network," Yuka said shrewdly.

Eishou shrugged a bit, not denying it.

"It's better than letting themselves get killed stupidly," he replied. "I like to think of it as assembling the kings rag-tag army."

Yuka glanced around her at the small raiding-bands of young men and some fewer young women... they reminded her more of a college frat-party with weapons.

"If I didn't feel sorry for your country before, I do now," was Yuka's dry response.

Eishou laughed and said

"I'm glad Taiki has someone like you looking out for him, you're nothing if not feisty it seems. We should have a spar, if I win you'll accept me fully."

His tone seemed to imply that there was no doubt in his mind that he was going to win. Yuka was always willing to take advantage of an enemy's overconfidence.

"And if I win, you'll teach me how to sneak around the way you do," she replied, accepting it.

Eishou called for a circle on the ground to be cleared of debris, the first one to knock their opponent out of the circle would win. The young-looking former general pulled out two battered practice swords and offered the one painted black for her to use, offering her the advantage (it was harder to see the black-painted blade in the dark, even lit by the light of three campfires) Yuka inclined her head gracefully in acknowledgement of his manners but silently and politely refused the offering, instead, she went over to her own pack and pulled out the escrima sticks she had made in the fishing village. Two of the finest bamboo reeds had been wrapped in wet leather thongs and left to dry (the leather tightening and stiffening until it was as hard as wood) the sticks were light and supple but less likely to split, shear and shatter than bamboo and less likely to break or splinter than oak... and when they hit, they hurt! She took a firm grip leaving herself an inch on the butt for pommeling and disarming manuevers and gave two quick twists of the wrists as she tested her stance before stepping inside of the circle.

Eishou took a normal kendo stance, she could tell simply by looking at him that he was the equivalent of a Master, possibly even a Grandmaster, at the Art of the Sword. Yuka might have to rely on her speed, and the element of surprise that came with an unfamiliar weapon and fighting style, but she could tell already that defeating a man like this wouldn't be easy, if he had made it this far, he was adaptable as well as good.

"An unfamiliar weapon," Eishou said.

Yuka said nothing and waited for the fight to begin, one of the camp youths called the start of the match and Yuka narrowed her concentration to the man standing before her.

Neither of them moved. Each was trying to assess the possible fighting skill of the other and neither of them wanted to give away their own level of skill. Yuka in particular did not wish to give anything away, she had fought in only a few competitions where the rules were very strict. Unless one counted the second-hand experience that the Hinma had given her, her only other experience with something like combat were spars-by-number in the classroom or one on one with her teacher or sempai. This man had fought in actual wars and battles, even if one counted her second-hand/first-hand experience being pitted against youma and later Nakajima by King Kou, her level of experience compared to his was still vastly uneven. However she had the element of surprise and she wished to keep him off guard, most green fighters would have tried to rush him rather than waiting, but Yuka's instincts told her he was waiting for that. All of these children surrounding him would have rushed him. Her strength in fighting relied mainly on counter-strikes anyway, he smaller size and the type of experience she had made using her enemies own size and strength against him advisable. Yuka forced her body to quiet and remain entirely under her control and watched him, waiting for his body to telegraph his moves.

His body did _not_ telegraph his moves, so when the first strike came, it came almost from out of no-where. Yuka's training took over, she blocked with one stick, hook-stepped to the side, advanced, and her arm led a roudunda strike to his temples. Eishou blocked the fist strike and her wrist twisted automatically to go for a double-strike to his other temple which he ducked, but she was in too close! Eishou jabbed like a spear with the tip of his practice blade going for a strike to her ribs. Her muscle memory saved her again, another hook-step twisting her to the side and away the momentum of the movement leading fluidly into another strike, this time from the side. She missed as he dodged back, but her training followed up automatically with a cloud-hands double attack from her other stick. Eishou blocked and tried to counter, but her alternate weapon in turn blocked his counter. The strike's counter-blow jarred the stick in her hands but Yuka paid little heed to the numbing sting in her palms, waiting only for his next move.

By now adrenaline was pumping into her blood stream making her body hum and narrowing her focus, she could perceive his least little movement and her body reacted automatically by making minute changes, her mind and muscles reading and discounting strategies ten to a second. She saw his foot twist in the dirt and hook-stepped around again, blocking with her left and finally landing a solid hit on his arm with her right. Eishou let out a curse as the impact momentarily loosened his grip. Unthinking, Yuka spun in, her right-hand stick weaving in like a needle in the precise movements the hinma had trained into her body to give her a lock-hand disarm. She got the weapon out of his hand, but her maneuver back-fired on her, Yuka missed the lock and instead found her back pinned to his chest and the crook of his elbow locked around her throat to drag her off balance.

The moments trained into her body by her instructor took over and she thrust against the ground with her legs, knocking them both backwards. They both rolled, her momentary captor releasing her before she could go for a finishing strike with one of her weapons while he was off-guard and falling. His own weapon was on the ground between them to her right, her stance changed a little bit, waiting for him to go for the weapon. He didn't, instead he charged at her. Yuka was caught off guard and automatically moved her left hand stick to strike before he could tackle her to the ground. He dodged the strike and that gave her enough space to dodge his own momentum, Eishou's body ducked and rolled, picking the fallen sword up as he went and then straightening into a low, crouched stance. Still an impasse.

This time Yuka decided that she would go on the offensive, and she did, using her footwork to take her on a more indirect path instead of charging at him and allowing him to use her own momentum against her, her sticks wove in and out around each other, in constant whirling strikes first the right attacking and the left blocking, then the left attacking and the right blocking, going for temple-strikes, collarbone-strikes, rib-strikes even a crouching low and going fro a knee strike followed by a foot-sweep (which he easily leapt over). The pattern was one of the more complex, and Yuka did not allow herself to let up nor second guess herself as Eishou managed to block all of her strikes. He was steadily retreating but he managed to do it in a way that kept him within the bounds of the circle, fortunately Yuka's own style was based more on melee-fighting than linear duels so twisting and turning this way an that was taught to her as a matter of course.

Eishou returned favor once with a foot sweeping attack, trying to take her off balance but Escrima relied upon light footwork, the higher forms incorporated leaps and twirls as well, she came down attacking with an overhead strike that was blocked by his sword but the side-strike with the alternate hand that followed it managed to score a hit. He grunted even through his armor (bamboo was not meant to tickle after all) and parried again, this strike fell heavily on her shoulder and she felt the impact jar against the armor she'd borrowed for the match but sunk her weight so that it would not throw her off-balance. He followed it up with an overhead strike designed to hit the top of her helm which she all but scrambled to meet with both of her sticks crossed before her to fend off the weight of his power attack. They traded blows for a minute, his powerful strikes being deflected by her lighter quicker movements, while she relied on her footwork and maneuverability to keep her out of the way of his powerful, heavy strikes. She was barely managing to keep a half-step out of his way, for Eishou was an incredibly skilled and experienced fighter, and she was aware that unless she managed a lucky strike or a careful tactic, it was only a matter of time before he beat her.

Yuka was sweating heavily and Eishou barely seemed winded as he'd herded her this way and that around the ring, Yuka just barely managing to stay within its circle... but Yuka had him where she wanted him. As he had herded her to one particular edge, Yuka executed a double hook and cross-step combo that brought her swiftly around to his other side and in a position to attack his flank. She darted in close, wove her right-hand stick across his arm and parralel to his shoulder twisted in so that she was at his side and with a lock of her hip and a twist of her torso, she threw him bodily over the line.

"Win!" She shouted triumphantly, pumping both sticks in the air to signal her victory.

It had been a lucky victory, relying almost entirely upon surprise and his overconfidence but sometimes that world handed out such victories and Yuka wasn't above taking pleasure in good fortune. Eishou smiled up at her from where he rolled to a comfortable cross legged sit in the leaves outside the circle where he fell.

"Nice match, kaikyaku-woman," he replied. If he was upset about having lost to someone who was clearly a beginner, he didn't show it. "Is that a style they teach in your world? I've never come across it before."

"It is meant for skirmishing and melee fighting," Yuka replied with a nod.

"You've never fought in a real battle before, am I right?" he asked next.

Yuka hesitated and then decided to grant him that one and shook her head.

"Not exactly," she replied, deciding to leave her duels with Nakajima and the youma-extermination fights out of consideration for the moment.

"Let me give you a few tips," he said, clearly intent on starting her education, as per the agreement, on thier way back to the camp proper and ignoring the heckles of the boys around him who were intent on teasing htier leader. "You've probably already guessed that in a real fight, your enemy will not stoop to follow the rules."

Yuka nodded him to continue.

"What that really means is that in a real fight, an enemy will try to incapacitate you before he engages. Always protect your eyes, Miss Yuka. If your enemy blinds you by throwing sand or dirt at you so you can't see, he can pick you off at leisure. Also, your style is flexible, but don't forget to use terrain to advantage as well. Throw things at him, trap him against a tree, make him fight with his back to a river."

Eishou spent the rest of the evening until "lights-out" teaching Yuka to move quietly through rough terrain, different techniques she could use to blend in with her surroundings, how to go unnoticed in a room and how to listening in on a conversation without appearing to listen in. Yuka applied herself to absorbing what her new teacher had to say to her because it would probably be neccessary to use in the near future. When she finally tucked herself in next to the already sleeping Kaname later that night, Yuka looked up at the stars wheeling over her head through the leaves of the tree-house they'd been assigned to sleep in and tried not to feel afraid.

:_Who would ahve ever thoguht I'd be doing something like this_?: Yuka wondered at herself.

Deep in her bones though, the answer came to her... _She_ had. There had been a promise made between herself and Youko Nakajima that she would live a quiet and peaceful life in her own world, but Yuka had felt deep in her restless bones that this world wasn't done with her yet. She wasn't entirely certain that it was a coincidence that she had heard the rumors of another who had been spirited away. She sometimes wondered if it was mere curiosity that had called her to investigate those rumors or some larger force at work.

:_If it is some larger force at work, I hope it's a good one,_: Yuka thought somewhat cynically to herself.

She'd had her fill of being manipulated and tricked the last time she'd been here. Granted, she had been complicit in her own manipulation, she had seen and wanted something that was not hers to take, but for a time she had danced to the tune that another had called. Yuka had no intention of doing so again. She would follow the path that she felt was the right one to take regardless of kings, queens or even Tentei themselves.


	13. Book I: Path of Sorrows: Chapter 12

Kaname Taiki shifted a little in his sleep and suddenly, from out of no-where an enormous youma-beast that looked like a wolf the size of a pony with deep red fur materialized before her. The beast surveyed her with solemn red-gold eyes and sniffed at her once, Yuka's hand inched slowly toward the large feild-knife that she had put under her pillow, just in case, and the beast (hard to call a thing that size a "dog") growled warningly at her, like it knew what she was thinking. Yuka frowned in puzzlement, it didn't act like a dog should have been acting, or a youma for that matter, as it hadn't attacked them.

"W-what do you want?" Yuka asked, feeling just a little silly for talking to it like she expected it to answer her, but the beast whined once, for all the world looking as worried as Lassie when Timmy got trapped down the mine-shaft. He snuffled at Taiki's hair once and Yuka's hand went for her knife, but the beast lay down with his muzzle between his paws and sighed deeply. Yuka blinked.

"Gouran?" she guessed hesitantly.

The beast snorted at her once, his eyes not leaving his master, Taiki.

"Oh, I get it," she said. "You're worried about him huh? Well, you probably should be. Even with this Eishou guy helping us out, we're going to be going into a dangerous situation. You'll need to be extra careful and on your guard to protect him, just in case something slips by me. I'll do my best though. Are we agreed?"

Gouran looked over at her out of the corner of one too-intelligent eye and nodded his head once, like a king deighning to acknowledge the pledges of the common people. Yuka made a face at him and said

"Keep it up with an attitude like that and I'll have Kaname let me put one of those dorky little doggy outfits on you. We'll see how tough you look covered in a pink cable-knit sweater with ruffles and ribbons, mister."

Gouran bared his fangs at her just a little, apparently he had seen the things during Kaname's time in the normal world or knew of them through Kaname's memories for he looked very much Not Amused. Yuka couldn't help but giggle softly at the expression.

"Truce," she said. "We're comrades after all."

Gouran snorted softly at her but didn't seem to disagree.

"Hey, do you think I made the right decision in trusting Eishou? He seems loyal and like a good person..."

Gouran made a low, soft wuff in the back of his throat and thumped his tail against the floor a few times. His majesty approved. Yuka shrugged, it was done with now but she was still glad for a little confirmation. Yuka turned, and went to sleep.

The camp was a bit of a flurry of activity the next morning, but a controlled flurry, with Eishou at its midst, calling out orders and instructions. One by one, little bands of young men and young women gathered up supplies and disguises as Eishou gave them their mission parameters, like Yuka had had seemed to decide that caution was the order of the day and was send ing in groups of threes and fours as "migrant travelers" looking for work on the construction site at the new palace. The leader of the rag-tag little army of urchins looked a bit more like a leader and less like a ruffian this morning. There was a little more of that military bearing coming back to him now that it looked like the mission was on. On first glance, Eishou had looked like a scruffy, unkempt ne're do well, with a scraggly beard, careless brown eyes and an insouciant slouch. This morning he was shaved and his clothes were far less down at the heel. He stood taller too, and there somehow seemed to be more of him there that morning.

"G'mornin' Yuka, " Kaname said, yawning over a bowl of rice porridge from where he sat perched next to a campfire.

"Good morning Kaname," Yuka replied as she helped herself to a bowl from the communal pot.

They were joined a moment later by Eishou himself, who apparently had finished with whatever orders needed to be given.

"There are other out posts that need to be warned, so I am sending most of the current group as messenger runners to other resistance leaders I know and have worked with. I have not spoken of any specifics, and these children are unaware that _Kaname_," (he stressed the name Yuka used for him to indicate that his real identity as Taiki would remain secret). "Is anything special. Part of my match with you last night Yuka-dono was a ruse to throw off suspicion in case any of the current fighters here are working for the black guard."

"You suspect a traitor among you?" Yuka asked, thinking that it seemed a pretty foolish way to run a resistance if it was riddled with spies.

"I always suspect a traitor among us," he replied shrewdly, waggling a teacherly finger at her.

Yuka looked at him blankly for a long moment until Kaname said

"He means that if he keeps his forces separated and occupied in missions that have little to do with each other, and limits the information on a need-to-know basis, he is able to more effectively manage the risk of betrayal or espionage."

"I see," Yuka said, looking at Eishou with new respect.

That was pretty smart of him, she wasn't so certain that it would have occurred to her to do the same if she had been in his position.

"Well," he said with a certain amount of dry, sardonic irony. "I am a general after all..."

Yuka's cheeks burned a little bit at the mild rebuke from him and she nearly replied in kind but Kaname touched her arm gently and gave her one of his kind and gentle looks that told her she was letting her feisty temper rule her again, so she restrained herself. She had probably earned it anyway.

"Kaname and I will continue on our path moving into the capitol of Shin Province to see if we can't hear something useful," yuka said.

"I would prefer it if you stayed here," Eishou disagreed mildly. "I have people already in place in Shin Province that can discover the information we seek more readily. It is of greater importance that Kaname be kept safe. He should be moved to a secure location while we gather information and form a plan of attack."

Yuka studied him for a long moment, feeling decidedly contrary to his opinion. On the one hand she supposed it made sense and was the best use of all the resources available. She and Kaname were both strangers there, and unfamiliar with the customs, it would be dangerous to give themselves away by waltzing into enemy territory and asking questions. But on the other hand, she didn't want to stay in camp and do nothing.

:_Or maybe I just don't like being told what to do_,: Yuka acknowledged ruefully.

After all, though she might not have gotten the role of the heroine she'd rather liked having the role of the guide and protector, she disliked that someone had so easily stolen the march on her and relegated her to a minor role so quickly.

:_But this isn't a story_,: she reminded herself.

In reality all sorts of terrible things could go wrong and if she wanted to finish what she'd started and more importantly, stay alive, maybe she should stop thinking like a child. She could get herself and Kaname killed foolishly if she made the wrong choice.

:_Maybe I should just listen to the voice of experience in this one_,: Yuka thought.

A large part of her rebelled at tamely doing what she was told. She well remembered what had happened the last time she had done what she was told... King Kou and his kirin had used it to manipulate her into fighting against Nakajima, but Taiki trusted Eishou and she had never known him to be wrong about people before.

:_Duh, Yuka! Why don't you actually try asking Kaname what he wants to do_?: she thought at herself.

She caught Kaname's gaze and jerked her head to one side signalling that she wanted to talk. Kaname walked with her out of earshot.

"What do you think?" she asked him bending thir heads together so they could talk privately.

"I trust Eishou," Kaname said calmly. "But... I want to find Gyousou-sama."

"I didn't come all of this way to climb up a tree and wait either," Yuka replied. "He's right about how we might stick out if we tried to blend in to the background, but I don't know about this secured location business."

Kaname opened his mouth to protest and Yuka quickly added

"Not that I think he's up to anything sinister, but all the same, I think it's detracting from our mission. I know he's supposed to be a really capable general and all, and his advice makes sense..."

"You just don't like that he thinks he can tell you what to do," Kaname guessed shrewdly.

Yuka opened her mouth to protest that that wasn't true, but as a kirin Kaname did not deal in untruths, and as her friend, he already knew her pretty well. Yuka shrugged and smiled a little ruefully

"I'm sure he has your, and this kingdom's, best interests at heart," Yuka said with what passed for diplomacy from her. "But I'm not interested in doing what I'm told either."

Yuka did not add that she worried that the longer the waited, the greater the chance that the Tentei who watched over this world might decide that they didn't like the way the kingdom of Tai was being run and that it's king had lost the Way and that Kaname-Taiki had to go through shitsudo because of it. The worry in the back of her mind that they had only a limited amount of time left itched at her and made her feel restless and disinclined to do any waiting of any sort.

"I think we should still go to Shin Province," Yuka said. "We can let him and his informants do all of the information gathering, but I really think it would be best if we were at least on hand in case there's something we need to act on immediately. We can just hole up in an inn or an apartment somewhere and not draw attention to ourselves."

Kaname nodded in agreement and they both went over to Eishou to tell him the bad news. He clearly tried to take it with good grace, it was an order from the Tai kirin after all, but Yuka could tell that he was deeply troubled by it. He tried to talk him out of it, making the case that His Eminence would be clearly vulnerable to attack, and not only that, but it would be unwise to risk him going deep into the enemy's stronghold. It was a good argument, but Kaname's firm rebuttal, delivered in clear, calm tones was a good one as well; to the best of anyone's knowledge, there was no-one who knew that kaname was Taiki or would even know who or what to look like and he had every intention of keeping a low profile. They were going. Yuka tried not to feel victorious and Eishou didn't glare at her for the Kirin having thwarted him on a major point, but he did give her a long, speculative look.

During their deliberations the other youths under Eishou's command had broken camp, packed up their belongings, and walked off in groups of ones, twos or threes in different directions to carry out their own missions, by noon she and Kaname and Eishou and a few stragglers were the only ones left in the abandoned camp. She already had their bags ready to go so she and Kaname waited patiently on the general to finish up with his last few orders.

"Are you sure I cannot convince you to withdraw to a safer location, m'lord," Eishou tried one last time before they moved out.

"No-place in Tai is really safe right now," Kaname replied. "If I'm going to have to be somewhere I'd prefer it to be a place where I have a chance of doing something, rather than being stuck in a tower somewhere, safe, but useless."

Yuka was beginning to think that kaname had some sort of issue about being put in a safe place to be protected. If he did, he hadn't told her about it.

"As you wish, Your Excellency," Eishou replied wearily. "I suppose I will make the best arrangements with regards to your safety as I and my people can manage on our arrival at Shin Province."

That last was said in an almost mournful tone. Yuka was not without sympathy for him, poor guy was in a tough situation but she felt it'd be for the best if Kaname got used to having a spine now.

"Let's go then," Kaname said as he slung his pack on his back and Yuka pulled on hers and they all three set out on the road to Shin Province.

* * *

**Huge shout out to War 90 my loyal reveiwer who continues to keep up with it even though I'm not sure he's seen 12k. Also shout out to Ayumi Fallassion who has kept up with it, and I can't wait until the next chapter of yours. Also Kshadeslady and paradise wobble, I'm glad you like it and have kept up with it so far. Thanks everyone! I hope you continue to like it in the future.  
**


	14. Book I: Path of Sorrows: Chapter 13

In all the books and television shows, journeys on the road by foot were always made under sunny skies with a light, cheerful breeze. The sun-dappled dirt roads were always perfectly dry and rustic-looking. None of those books or movies ever showed the heroes moving out under overcast, slate-grey skies with mizzle (not quite mist and not quite drizzle, but a cold, clammy combination of the two) and the threat of rain, the roads were never half-puddle nor were they muddy in all places where they were not rock or puddle. In short, it was cold, wet and miserable again. After an hour of foot-aching, shoulder and back pressing travel, Yuka was beginning to sympathize with Bilbo Baggin's assessment of adventures; "nasty, disturbing, uncomfortable things that make you late for dinner!" Still, she knew from her last journey in this world that traveling to that apocryphal "safe haven" that Eishou wanted them to go to wasn't going to be any more comfortable, she would far rather be going to a place where there was a chance she could do something, instead of sitting in an abandoned fort, twiddling her thumbs.

"If I wasn't aware of it before, I surely am now... real life is nothing like the movies!" Kaname remarked in an uncanny echo of her thoughts.

"Try to look at it this way," Yuka comforted him. "At least it hasn't rai-"

"Don't say it!" Kaname snapped, clamping a hand over her mouth.

The sky overhead rumbled threateningly and both of her companions glared at her for possibly jinxing it. Yuka gave an apologetic, wincing smile back.

"Sorry..." she said in chagrin.

It was drawing toward evening when the party of three travelers came across their first real obstacle. It was not, thank heavens, a party of bandits, or worse, a party of Black Guards. Instead a massive Youma about the size of a bull-dozer and shaped like a cross between a lion and a crow, with horns like a prize bull, had planted itself across the pass. Yuka drew out her bow and Eishou unsheathed his sword.

"Kaname, I don't think we're getting out of this one without bloodshed," Yuka said as the enormous monster eyed them with a decidedly predatory look on its face. It crouched low with the intent look of a cat with a mouse in sight, looking at the three of them like they were the mouse.

"Please retreat to safety Your Excellency," Eishou added.

Yuka drew out two arrows, held one in her teeth and nocked the other one to the string of her bow, as Kaname, knowing he was worse than useless in a fight, withdrew as he had been asked to. He would have stayed behind out of loyalty, but he was perfectly aware that he would be unable to tame the creature as he had Gouran for in his interim in the Other World the spell he had learned to do so had faded from his memory (and with the lives of his friends on the line, right then would have been a bad time to try to jog his memory!).

Eishou charged in directly at its front, and Yuka let fly the the arrow she had pulled back. The swipe that the brave general had made at its forepaw bloodied it, but did little damage. Yuka's arrow flew fast and straight, but only hit the outer rim of its eye. The youma screamed and reared up in pain and anger. Eishou dodged a return swipe by the beast and ducked in to stab at its rib while Yuka nocked and aimed another arrow. When the Youma had reared up, it bared its throat, which was a considerably larger target than its eye had been. The arrow flew straight once more, and this time it buried itself deep into the flesh of the youma's neck, but only in the side, piercing the skin and going out the other side, but not cutting off the flow of blood or air. Eishou landed a long stab into the ribs of the youma and the beast curled up a bit, lashing and thrashing at the closer target. One blow struck the soldier and sent him flying to the side to tumble for a ways. The beast turned at bay and lowered its head at the only other target it saw, Yuka.

:_Not good_,: she thought in a benumbed state of fear that wasn't yet panic, but was certainly headed in that direction.

It was to the school-girl's credit, certainly, that she did not turn and run, but stood her ground. She pulled another arrow out of her quiver, nocked it and drew, aiming for the eyes that regarded her with murderous intent. Suddenly there was a flash of russet red from off to one side and a shape blurred in to attack the Youma. Gouran. The Youma let out a bone-chilling howl of pain as the larger shirei under the command of the Tai kirin sank his teeth into enemy flesh on the scruff of its neck and jerked his head side to side as a terrier worried a rat. Yuka needed no further prompting, she let fly her arrow and this time managed to plant it in the soft tissue of its eye. Eishou rushed in while the beast was distracted, rearing up to try to shake off Gouran and screaming in pain from the arrow, and dealt the finishing blow, gutting the creature all the way down its navel. It gave one last weak cry and fell over. Yuka panted with reaction-fear and her stomach roiled, trying to make her sick. Eishou politely retrieved her arrows from out of the beast, cleaned them and returned them to her.

"Good work," He said gruffly, as a commanding officer might to one of his young, green soldiers under his command after his first battle. "You do not lack for courage."

"Ah... Thanks..." Yuka said, as she tucked away her bow and quiver. "You too. Good stab there."

Eishou acknowledged the compliment with a nod, but was occupied in cleaning all of the blood off from his armor so that he could continue to travel in the presence of a kirin and not make him sick.

"You too Gouran," Yuka called to the youma beast, which was already on its way back to its master. Its only reply was a snort in her general direction. Shortly afterward they were on their way again.

They made camp in a clearing that Eishou had found off the road. It was close enough to a river that they would have water but far enough away to avoid ant aquatic predators or youma on the way to a watering hole. The fire, when they at last got it to light, was a pitiful spluttering thing that fizzed and popped fitfully and just barely stayed lit but it was enough to cook the now almost inevitable rice on. After the days exertions they were all famished. Eishou caught fish from the river for Yuka and himself and a nice salad of wild greens and early apples for Kaname. In the process he taught Yuka a quick lesson in forage and fishing (that did not include all of the fancy gear and tackle she was accustomed to when she thought of fishing).

The rain started up in earnest when Yuka and Kaname were three quarters of the way done with setting up thier tent on high ground. They finished quickly and all three of them crowded inside for shelter and to hopefully fry off some. There was no way that Yuka was changing her clothes crowded back to back with a strange man, especially when it was much more expedient to just sleep in them now and change in the morning. They huddled together to keep as warm as possible through the cold night and Eishou, a veteran of worse campaigns than that one, told them both the story of how Gyousou had become so famous in the province of Bun that there was actually a saying that reflected his feat. "To show one a white shield."

The main city on Shin Province, where the seat of the provincial government was was called Sa which apparently meant "brown" but utterly belied its appearance for all of the walls were white-washed stone and the roof tiles were blue-fired grey clay from the river nearby. Yuka would have called Sa sizable town, but she was accustomed to living in cities that took the better part of a day to cross even using automotive transport. Eishou considered the place to be a rather good-sized city and Yuka and Kaname both had to remind themselves that they came from a world with probably twenty or thirty times the population that this one held... especially if the populations kept getting decimated by youma every other decade or so.

Outside the gates to the city was a sizable migrant workers camp. Clearly they were not the only ones who had heard of construction work to be found in the new palace in Shin Province and thought to profit by it. The migrant camp was no neat military unit of orderly rows of tents and ample food and water for all, it was a squalid little town in and of itself with ramshackle pitched-tent houses set up wherever a given person or family thought was best to put it. Scrawny, half-naked children and flea-ridden mongrels ran, played and fought on the packed dirt "streets" of the little town, no-one was enforcing fresh-water rules (or hygiene standards for that matter) so it smelled pretty ripe.

"Are you sure we have to camp here?" Yuka muttered with distaste as she looked around them.

"The best way to remain unnoticed," Eishou murmured back in a very low voice. "Is to blend in with the people we want to imitate. There would be some eyebrows raised if we claimed to be poor laborers looking for work but we had coin enough to pay for lodgings."

Yuka tried not to sigh too loudly by the fact that the man had a good point.

"We'll establish our identities and see what we can hear on the streets for a few days and if this route doesn't pan out, we'll just move on to another location," Eishou tried to reassure her.

Yuka nodded, looking for a place that wasn't too close to someone else's little camp nor too close to what seemed to be the latrine areas or the distemperate-smelling areas where people gathered water. She found a spot that seemed like it would suit on the western edge of the migrant camp, they would have to go further for water but it didn't smell. Eishou went to look for firewood while she and Kaname set up the tent. After half an hour the young former general returned saying that the nearby wood had been picked clean of fallen drift and that any other supply had to be bought at exorbitant prices. Judging by the roll of cord-wood slung over his shoulder, Eishou had been forced to give in to one shady opportunist or another.

They made dinner and carefully didn't talk about their mission. As part of their ruse to establish themselves, Yuka took out her instrument and started to play. Kaname's face was hidden by a hood and cowl, ostensibly for warmth in the chill of the evening, but mostly because Eishou insisted on keeping the kirin's face hidden (for obvious reasons). Yuka's violin attracted curious looks and she with it. The children of the camp had apparently not had anything that remotely resembled fun in their lives for a very long time, for when they started playing the faster celtic reels the children seemed to equate it with "festival" and they started to dance, impromptu, to the music. Some of them were so skinny that Yuka wondered where they found the energy, but find it they did. It seemed that kids were kids no matter the world. Yuka, feeling sorry for them, played until her out-of-practice fingers were sore and Kaname sketched them in his sheaf of papers with charcoal. In gratitude, when they at last did pack it in, there were gifts of flowers and pretty stones and the occasional stick to add to the fire after all of the children scampered back to their nests.

"Well, it looks like we won't have much of a problem establishing ourselves," Eishou grumbled. "I just wish you had picked a way that wasn't quite so noticeable."

"I wouldn't worry about it," Kaname replied. "In a city active as this one, and with this many soldiers in it, I'd bet entertainers are everywhere."

They found out how right he was the next morning with the three of them broke camp and took thier things with them to find work rather than trust that they would be in the camp when they came back. The city of Sa might as well have been a city of buskers and beggars. Every form of them, from the crouching, lowly old "blind man" to the ten year old child tootling on a tin whistle staked out corners and lanes, market squares and the curbs of shops where the city watch was less diligent about moving the rabble out of the way of "honest working citizens". They problem for Yuka and Kaname wouldn't be standing out, it would be finding a place that wasn't already staked out.

They found a place at an open market in between a stall selling bread and another stall selling fruits and she and Kaname took up her fiddle and began with the songs in their repertoire. They had the novelty of a new sound, and their hat, while it didn't fill quickly, did get the occasional copper tossed in it more often than not. Better than that, the place they'd staked out was a fount of gossip; much of it was useless, who was courting whom, whether or not the price of bread and rice might go up, how scarce the fruits and grains were compared to the year before... but some of it was useful; who had gotten taken up by the blackguard for sedition and whether or not they were to be shipped out to work in the mines, and where the others were going to be sent. The sun was setting when a small group of what were clearly laborers from the nearby camp on their way home from their job dropped by the bread stall to hopefully buy some of the day old bread or loaf-ends at a discount price stopped by. Yuka and Kaname kept playing their instruments, even as they strained to overhear what was said. Mostly it was the usual complaints; sore muscles from the heavy labor, not enough money for the work they did, the price of bread and other necessities, but Yuka managed to overhear two interesting bits; one was that the overseers in charge of the construction on the new palace had started hiring again for another section and the other was that there had been a major increase in the guard on the finished wing of the palace the wing which contained the new Tower of Penitence.

"What's this Tower of Penitence I've been hearing about?" Kaname asked Eishou as they wolfed down a large bowl of rice, while Yuka soaked her finger tips which had lost their callouses in the time since she's stopped needing to play to violin for competition.

"It seems to be a new feature on the governmental palace," Eishou replied.

He had spent the day out hopping from bar to tea-house getting in touch with all of the contacts he had scattered about the city and still hidden within the army. Yuka strongly suspected that a number of people in the crowd that day had been assigned by Eishou to protect them and next asked him about it.

"You had people watching us, didn't you?"

Eishou blinked in surprise.

"Ah! Good eyes! Did you notice how many, and who they were?"

"I think so," she said, a little uncertainly. This had the feeling of him being a sensei giving a review quiz to a particularly promising young student.

"There was one young man who settled himself down on the curb shortly after Kaname and I found our spot. He had a bandage over his eyes, pretending to be a blind beggar, but he didn't call out to the crowd with his sob story, he just waited there quietly, pretending to stare at nothing."

"How did you know he was pretending?"

"When he got up to move the way he used his walking stick was more like an accessory, and he dodged out of the way when people moved too fast."

"Good," Eishou said approvingly. "Any more?"

"There was one fellow, a burly man," Kaname volunteered. "He kept chatting up this one girl and one minute she'd be turning him aside and the next she acted like she might be interested."

"Was the girl part of it?" Yuka asked.

Eishou smiled.

"Possibly. Any others?"

Yuka shook her head, echoed by the kirin.

"There were a small squad of four down the street pretending to hawk skeins of yarn, then down the other way I had set up another squad of six selling blankets. There was two other pairs later on, one set disguised as buyers for the booth nearby, and other set were watching the gambling going on just across the way. Oh, and a small gambling ring of four just toward sun-down. Those were dual purpose though, the fastest way to divest a soldier of both rumors and coin is by gambling ring... surround him with enough nodding cronies and wine and he'll spill his guts to anyone."

Yuka tucked the information away. It might be useful to one day disguise herself as a beer-pourer or gambler herself sometime.

"And as to the Tower of Penitence, it's a new part of the Governmental palace, just added on recently. It overlooks an executioners block where those citizens who have difficulties with the new emperors rule can look out over their fate and rue the day they opened their mouths. I gotta say, even after all this time of having that bastard in place I never suspected he was _that_ sadistic underneath it all."

"Me neither. Back when I lived in the palace he was always so nice to me. I never sensed any evil from him at all," Kaname taiki said sadly.

Yuka looked at Eishou and Kaname in perplexity.

"Ansen," Eishou explained. "Was once the twin general to Gyousou back in the days of the previous emperor. Everyone in the military called them the twin swords. They were both amazing, intelligent and formidable men. The soldiers and citizens protected by them prospered even as the reign itself waned."

Eishou shook his head, clearly bringing himself out of his own reverie.

"But that was then. Now, as you can see he's used his tactical brilliance trid us of our king in a way that we cannot track."

"Has everyone tried to make it into..." Yuka hesitated, reluctant to use the word "palace" in a place where there might be interested listeners. "To your former home?"

Some few, but you must understand," Eishou replied. "That place is a world unto itself. Because it is located above the Sea of Clouds, it is difficult to get to even when times are peaceful and the guard is relatively lax. At a time like now, with a pretender on the throne tightening security around him, anyone we have sent to sneak in or try to question the staff has been discovered. Furthermore, there is an additional reason besides wanting to protect himself that the security at the palace has been tightened."

"What's that," asked Kaname.

"Ansen has taken hostages from every province and even down to the county level in some particular cases," Eishou replied. "He keeps the hostages there in order to keep the province lords and their vassals that he cannot replace, from deploying thier troops against him. Well, now a days, with so many of the black guard in place, perhaps the hostages have become redundant, but he keeps them just the same."

"Kaname and Yuka exchanged a long look and finally it was Yuka who said

"If Ansen feels comfortable enough to keep hostages there, then that must be where he's keeping his prize."

"What about the Tower?" Kaname asked. "Wouldn't keeping him in a place that he himself designed be even safer than that other place?"

"It's a compelling thought, but think of this. A pretender to the throne knows that he rules only so long as the real king is kept out of the way. Ansen's clearly found a way to make that happen, but even the most arrogant man would want a surety. He won't be keeping his main prize thousands of miles away from him where someone might sneak him out. He's going to keep it right under his nose, where he can check up on it often and make sure that nothing has happened to it."

"Well, how do we get in there then?" Kaname asked.

"We should hold off on any plans to go charging up there," Yuka said. "I mean, it's not exactly like we have an army. You can't even change. For now, we should keep our ears open."

"As for not having an army," Eishou said. "Wait another day or two, and we'll see if there's not something that can be done about that."


	15. Book I: Path of Sorrows: Chapter 14

They were both a bit surprised when Eishou let them sleep late the next morning instead of waking them with the sun as he had on the mornings previous. He urged them both to eat quickly and while they did so he packed up their small, makeshift camp. They tried to question him as to why but he told them only that he would explain presently. When breakfast was finished, he led the two of them outside the bounds of the camp, but past the city gates instead of going inside of them as they had for the previous few days. He led them north and west onto a very small trail that was little more than a deer track on the nearby forest. They walked through the wood on the winding path for a little ways, until the terrain started going upwards. At first it was only a little, but gradually the hills got bigger and bigger, and there were more rocks and boulders jutting up through the dirt, the trees began to thin out and the terrain grew steeper and more rocky. They had been walking without rest for the better part of the morning.

"Where do you think we're going?" Kaname wondered to her.

"I'm not sure," Yuka said, looking at their guide.

As a general rule she didn't trust people, especially strange men who led her out deep into the woods. She had been keeping her senses sharp about her for any signs of an ambush but hadn't noticed anything but then again this man trained people to go about unnoticed. She didn't like it one bit.

:_We should turn back, there's no telling what this guy has in store for us_,: Yuka thought to herself, debating whether or not she should just jump him from behind and tie him up then find another way of getting things done without him.

The last time she'd trusted a person to lead them someplace with the promise of "helping them out" it had been with Youko and that farmer Takki. Youko had insisted on trusting the old woman over Yuka's suspicious protests (she'd just been a little _too_ nice and helpful) and she'd tried to sell them as prostitutes to a brothel.

"Yuka," Kaname said warningly, catching her mood shift.

"What?" she asked innocently, pretending that she wasn't considering the best angle to attack him from behind and knock him out with.

"Don't," he told her. "I trust Eishou, and so should you."

"I don't trust anybody," Yuka said flatly.

She had already learned her lessons well.

"Except for you," she added as an afterthought. He was a kirin after all, deception was against his nature.

"Well, if you trust me then trust my ability to ascertain his intentions. Eishou truly means us well. He's leading us out here to get us as far away from danger as he can."

Yuka reluctantly acquiesced to her friend's judgement. She didn't like the situation, but she would put her faith in Kaname's judgement in this case.

:_Doesn't mean I'm going to lower my guard_,: she assured herself.

"We're almost there," Eishou called back to them.

Yuka increased her guard, uncertain of what they would have to face.

A few more yards and the trees thinned out completely to reveal a sudden cliff. It declined outwards slightly, the edges sharp and jagged from the incessant beating of the waves against the rocks nearby. There was a large, thick rope secured to a nearby boulder sticking up from the ground that railed over the side of the cliff.

"Don't tell me, let me guess," Yuka said dryly. "You want us to climb over the side."

Eishou pointed a ways out to the sea where she could just make out a blot with a tall black splotch sticking up from the top of it. A ship.

"There's no harbor here about for miles," Eishou replied. "If we want to catch a ship, this is the only way to do it. Besides that, Ansen's got his men watching all the harbors and any of the usual places that smugglers use for harbors. We have to play fast and rough by the cliffs. It's riskier, the seas are choppy and the tides are tricky but its the only option we've got right now."

Yuka looked down the several-story height of the cliff to the seas crashing and growling against the teeth of the rocks below. There was a tiny rowboat that only managed to look nothing short of _flimsy_ tied to one of the rocks and tossing and bobbing on top of the waves.

"You _must_ be joking," Kaname seconded the sudden feeling of dubiousness that Yuka felt at the situation he was asking her to put herself and Kaname in.

The young general just looked back at the two of them. He wasn't joking.

"Ill go first, just to show you how it's done," he said.

"kaname come here, I'll tie a harness for you," yuka offered in an older-sisterly tone.

She cut off a length of her thinner rope, folded it in half, and with quick practiced motions made him a swiss seat harness by twisting the rope around his waist, through his crotch around his hips and tieing it in the ending knot. She tugged and checked the straps to make sure all was secure and tried not to laugh at the way that Kaname was wriggling.

"it's called a swiss seat harness," she said with a small amused smile. "But my instructor used to call it the atomic wedgie harness."

"I don't see what the swiss have to do with this, and it feels to me like the second term is more accurate," Kaname replied.

They watched as Eishou dangled a bit for a minute, got his equilibrium and pushed off, dropping in measured bursts. Yuka offered Kaname the option of her pulling the rope up, tying him to the end and lowering him slowly so that he wouldn't have to do the actual rappelling which could be scary if you weren't used to it. He looked indecisive but finally nodded. Yuka pulled the rope up and tied him securely.

"Hang on to the rope and try not to look down," she said tightly as she started to dangle him over the edge.

The second warning was unneccessary as Kaname had his eyes squinched shut tightly. Hand by hand she started to lower him. He was heavy, at least to her. Yuka was small and she didn't weigh much, but even so, with her legs braced securely, lowering him down pulled at her pretty hard but she managed to keep her pace steady. When Kaname reached the bottom, Eishou untied Kaname and Yuka felt a momentary fear flutter through her when Eishou put her young kirin friend in the boat. It wasn't just because the boat seemed to toss about dangerously on top of the waves, Yuka had the sudden fear that Eishou would find it more advantageous to separate Kaname from her by leaving her up on top of the cliff and sail off without her. Yuka quickly tied herself off and, without barely testing, all but threw herself over the side, taking the cliff in three bounding leaps that she would have called with dangerous haste under any other circumstances. She made it to the ground and unlatched herself from the fall-rope quickly to appear at his side before he could shove off without her.

"That was quick!" Eishou said, blinking in very real surprise as he turned around, apparently to either untie the rope or tell her to hurry and be quick about it.

Yuka said nothing, just regarding him with her usual attitude of wary suspicion.

"All aboard then, milady," he said, reaching over to hand her in.

Yuka already had her hands braced against the stern and one foot on the bottom of the unsteady craft. She leaped lightly in the rest of the way and moved to Kaname's side in the bow of the boat. Poor Kaname, already miserable by the rapid rocking jostling of the waves just buried his face in her shoulder and so she put her arms comfortingly around him. Eishou untied them and hopped in with practiced ease, taking up the oars and maneuvering to row them out to the waiting craft.

It was a miserable journey for the both of them, Kaname got sick quickly as the waves lifted them and lowered them by turns, rolling underneath them. Yuka didn't like looking at the sight of land moving farther away from her and taking her options with it. As long as they had remained on land they'd had choices, she could always cut and run (or rather knock Eishou out and take off) if she felt that things were getting risky for them. By trusting him enough to let them take them away by boat Yuka felt like she was essentially placing herself in his power. She remembered well what had happened the last time she had trusted a man _that _much, the King of Kou had used and abused her trust. She had so little else in her life that said that this wasn't going to turn out to be a monumental disaster... just Kaname really.

"Permission to come aboard!" Eishou called out as they neared the port-side of the ship.

"Permission granted!" called a voice from somewhere up above them.

Yuka had never really appreciated how tall a ship looked from water level. The ship was about mid-size, and looked to be built to balance speed and maneuverability with fighting power, but despite its relatively small size the ship seemed to loom over them ominously. Two chains were dropped from a pulley-like device attached to the ship and hooked into place on the fore and aft ends of the boat by Eishou. Yuka and Kaname both started in alarm and grabbed the sides of their tiny vessel as they were lifted out of the water and into the air. Neither of them cared for that very much, and the trip up the side of the ship felt deceptively long.

"Ladies first," Eishou said, with what she supposed was supposed to be a charming smile, when the boat at last stopped moving and cleared the side-rail of the ship.

"Shouldn't _you_ be going then," Yuka replied tartly, with as much of her usual attitude as she could muster. She was more shaken by the awful voyage by boat and that lifting-thing than she cared to admit.

There was the sound of laughter from on deck in response to what she'd said.

"Yuka..." Kaname whimpered, looking at the foot-wide space between the edge of their boat and the side of the ship.

She shook her head a little and helped him to his feet, forcing her body to adjust to the rhythm of the sea rolling beneath her and moving the little boat she was standing on with it.

"It's okay," she soothed, leading him over to the side.

She caught one arm and a sailor, a big, strong, burly looking fellow who reminded her of the lead actor from The Green Mile caught his other arm in a steadfast grip and pulled him bodily from the boat and onto the slightly more secure deck of the ship. Yuka followed after him, leaving Eishou to bring up the rear.

That was when she got her first look around her at the new situation she found herself in and her first reaction was one of dismay and alarm.

:_We've been kidnapped by pirates_!: she thought, hands automatically flying to her weapons as she found herself surrounded by a scraggly-looking crew, dressed in rags, with unwashed hair made stringy by the sea-salt and winds. They looked like a sorry, disreputable lot of sea-bandits. She moved in a defensive position in front of Kaname, ready to fight their way back to the rowboat and... think of _something_!

The Eishou stepped on board the deck, as one, moving like a single organism, every one of the unkept ruffians snapped to perfectly military attention saluted smartly.

"Take the wheel," commanded a surprisingly light-sounding voice off to her right.

They were approached smartly by either a very tall young woman or a short young man wearing a tri-cone hat and dressed in knee-boots, and practical shirt and breeches. The captain had close-cropped (almost military-style) hair if a dark brown color framing an androgynously handsome face.

"General Eishou!" the young-looking sea-captain greeted their guide with every evidence of familiarity.

"Captain Ran," Eishou replied easily. "My thanks for answering so promptly to my request."

"You know you've only to ask," the captain replied.

"I think," Kaname murmured to Yuka in an undertone. "That these are all his former subordinates."

"Let's hope we're not looking at all the sad remains of his majesty's royal navy," Yuka replied, not holding out much hope.

A particularly emphatic wave swelled beneath them and Kaname headed straight back over to the side-rail to loose what little of his breakfast had survived the trip out still in his stomach.

"I present to you His Eminence, Taiki the Tai Taiho," Eishou said proudly when kaname had straightened a bit with Yuka securing his arm steady. "And... his kaikyaku friend, Yuka Sugimoto."

They were all hailed joyfully by the crew, well, Kaname probably more than here. Most of the crew was giving her uneasy looks.

:_From all I've read, sailors are supposed to be superstitious_,: she thought. :_They're probably just worried about having a woman sail on board with them. Or maybe a kaikyouku.:_

She couldn't promise them that she _wasn't_ bad luck.

"Yuukaaa..." kaname said weakly from her side, looking at her piteously.

She soothed her hand over his back.

"There's no sick like sea sick," she said, trying to make a little joke to get him to smile.

He just turned back to the side and dry-heaved.

"Is there a cabin I can take him to rest in?" she asked, pointing her question in the general direction of Eishou and his Captain friend.

"We've saved the finest quarters aside for his eminence," the Captain assured them both.

"But what about you?" Kaname questioned, knowing full well that the captains quarters were the best.

"I can bunk down in the out-quarters," Captain Ran replied.

"Here," Yuka said, gently leading him away to the promised bed. "We'll just get you horizontal for a while and everything will get better."

"Geeehhhh," he groaned, allowing himself to be led off.

The captain's quarters were neat but not what she'd been expecting. Of course, her expectations were all based off the movies, where there were opulent rooms with large windows and beds hung with velvet curtains. The room had a single plain bed with built-in drawers under it and a pull-down rack for an extra sleeping mat overhead, a secretary bolted to the floor beneath a small porthole, a small charting table in the middle of the room (that probably doubled as a dining table) and a small bank of storage chests also bolted to the floor. Yuka led him over to the bed and tucked him in. He groaned but managed to hold it in this time.

"I'll go see if I can't find something for you," Yuka said.

She had a hopeful thought that perhaps on a ship that size with an actual crew there might be someone who could mix up some sort of medicine that would help kaname with his motion sickness. If not, well, she was going to need a bucket for him to throw up in.

She ducked out into the sunlight and wind to find the ship getting properly underway. The only time she'd ever sailed had been the time she'd been hunting Youko down for the king of Kou and she'd been so intent on her mission that she hadn't taken the time to enjoy the experience of being at sea... that, and there had been what she would have called a bad storm, though the rest of the crew at the time had acted like it was nothing more than an afternoon shower. It had made for a difficult terrain to fight in because the ship and everything around her had been constantly moving, and the rain had got into her eyes...

Yuka shook her head to clear it and watched as the Captain of the ship conducted his crew to getting their vessel ready to make way. Men and women scurried up and down ropes and (she supposed they were called) riggings, securing knots and pulling the sails tighter to take advantage of the winds to speed them on their journey. It looked like everyone had something to do so Yuka tried her best to simply stay out of the way and flow in between the frantic pacework of the crew to reach the side of the person at the helm of the ship.

"Excuse me," she said clearly at a moment when the helmsman was finished bellowing out orders.

The burly man who had helped Kaname out of the boat turned to glare at her. Yuka, defensive pride straightening her spine, did not so much as flinch backward, remaining steady in the face of the man's glare. She had the feeling that this was some kind of test, and she had yet to fail a contest of wills.

"Whacher wont then,' he demanded gruffly.

"My friend is sea-sick. Do you have something that will take the worst of it away. He can't keep anything down and I don't want him getting dehydrated."

She had heard some real horror stories, involving fainting spells, and even black tongues.

"He's a kirin, Won't work on him lass," the man said, not entirely unkindly.

Yuka frowned.

"And why not?" she questioned.

"The horn of a kirin automatically purifies poisons- Lay that line Zan, or by the tentei I'll come over there an' hang you with it!" he directed his next sentence to her. "What we call medicine is another sort of poison, or at least the magic views it that way, no matter that it is designed to return the body to a state of health. If you give it to him, his body will only automatically purge it from his system. I wish it weren't so, but our kirin will only have to endure it."

"I see," Yuka said, disappointed. "And thank-you," she added. "I will find a bucket then."

The man pointed a meaty fist with one long, scarred and weather-beaten finger over to a rack of buckets, presumably for cleaning the decks with, and jerked his head at her absently in a signal that she should have at one. Yuka sketched a quick bow in thanks and brought the bucket back into the relatively dim interior of the captain's cabin. Kaname was languishing away looking absolutely, _pathetically_ miserable.

Yuka blinked in shocked surprise to see a... creature, sort of sitting, laying, kneeling next to the bed. She wasn't quite sure what to call the position seeing as the bottom, leopard-like part looked to be laying down, but the top half, shaped like a woman was sitting up. The nyosin was stroking Taiki's hair in a motherly fashion, and drying the sweat from his brow with a cloth that she had found somewhere.

"I looked for medicine for you but unfortunately there's nothing that will work for you," Yuka explained sympathetically. "But look!" She held up the bucket. "I got a bucket for you."

"Great," he said a little flatly.

Yuka handed the bucket to Sanshi with a small bow of greeting. The mutant nursemaid looked at her with liquid eyes. Yuka couldn't tell if they were those of an intelligent human or if it existed the unfathomable thoughts of a youma.

"There's water if you find you can keep it down," she added, wishing she could do more for him.

Kaname nodded weakly and returned his head to the comforting cradle offered by the nyosin. Yuka gave him a sympathetic look, feeling a little guilty that the sea didn't seem to bother her at all. Having no other comfort to offer him, Yuka unpacked her violin from its case and played the most soothing songs she knew on it, hoping to lull him into a comforting sleep. He deserved it and was probably going to need it.

* * *

**Ah, poor taiki! Well they are on thier way, where exactly? You'll find out later! Thanks again to those who read and reveiwed the last chapter, you all are awsome! I hope you'll look forward to more soon.  
**


	16. Book I: Path of Sorrows: Chapter 15

**Warning: This chapter is filler and can be missed with impunity. That said, I hope you enjoy it.**

Lacking anything else to do, Yuka sat down at the table and opened the zip-close of the duffel bag she'd packed to get them through the journey.

:_Oh! I completely forgot about this_!: Yuka thought in surprised delight as her hand hit against the tiny zipper of the "hidden" inner pocket on the inside of the duffel bag. It was something of a strange habit of hers to put things in there so she wouldn't lose them when she used her bag, and then to forget all about inner pocket because it was sewn in such a way that it was not immediately discernible from a regular seam.

Curious about what she had left in it (if anything at all) Yuka unzipped the pocket and looked inside. The first thing she noticed was a square packet inside slightly used ziplock baggie (that looked like it had once been used to hold cookies).

"Hey!" Yuka said brightly. "So _that's_ where those went!"

"That's where what went?" Kaname asked curiously, but before Yuka could answer the door to the cabin opened and Eishou and Captain Ran stepped through.

They were talking animatedly, making plans for the defense plans around whatever place they were taking Taiki to be kept safe. They barely spared the two of them a glance as they dumped maps out on the table and weighted them with whatever came near to hand.

Yuka let them have the table in the fore-room and sat down next to Sanshi and Kaname in the sleeping cabin.

"I've been looking _everywhere_ for these," she said in answer to Kaname's previous question. "I had them for a summer job I took last vacation. I put them in a safe place where I knew I wouldn't forget where they were, and then couldn't remember where I'd put them."

She held aloft a deck of tarot cards.

"I didn't know you believed in tarot cards," Kaname said, justifiably surprised.

Yuka was usually pretty cynical about the world around her, Kaname often accused her of being a pessimist but she liked to call herself a realist. Sadly, she was right about things more often than she was wrong.

"I don't," she said. "I told you they were for a job. Last summer I worked at a summer event by the seaside at a fortune-telling booth, conning suckers from their money."

It had mostly been a novelty thing, nine querants out of ten had been getting their fortunes read just because it was something fun to do, and to say that they had done it and compare their fortunes to their friends. She'd gotten one or two who had actually believed in the answers she'd spouted off. One woman in particular was adamant that every fortune that Yuka had told her had come to be, and had nearly started stalking her, asking her to become her personal advisor. It had been weird. And stupid.

"Yuka," he said, reprovingly about her use of the term "sucker" for her previous clients.

"Well they were," she said unrepentantly. "It's just too easy. I'm good at reading people and they practically give the game away by asking their stupid question out loud at the start, it's almost like they want me to con them. But it was actually kind of fun really... these cards are a great excuse for me to tell them the truth right to their faces in the most obvious way possible and they can't take offense at it because, hey! It's not me it's what the cards say!"

"Have you ever actually told someone's future with them?" he asked, credulous as any child.

Yuka rolled her eyes.

"Oh sure, all the time," she said sarcastically.

"ooh, ooh! Do me!" he said, eagrely. "Read my future!"

"Kaname," she said flatly, with her usual attitude. "I was being facetious. These cards don't actually tell the future. You ask a question and the person reads you as much as she reads the cards. And because there's so many different meaning to the symbols the reader can tailor the interpretation to fit practically anything."

Her tone implied '_duh_.'

"So you've never actually read the future?" he asked, disappointed.

"No," she said bluntly. "As far as I'm concerned, they're just a way to get into the confidence of a superstitious person and get money out of them. Mostly they're just for fun anymore... though there _are_ people that are pretty serious about them."

That woman who had stalked her came to mind.

"I guess it's good that I have it with me, not because I want to run around telling people's futures, mind you," Yuka said practically. "But if I shuffle out the Major Arcana, we can use the Court and Pips suits to play cards with. How are you at poker?"

"No offense but," Kaname smiled a little weakly. "You don't want any of this."

Yuka chuckled at his little joke.

"But I _am_ bored," he said, looking at her hopefully. "I don't suppose you could entertain me by doing one of your card readings?"

"I really don't-" she said uncomfortably.

Yuka had a hard time pinpointing exactly what had always made her nervous about fortune-telling, even when she approached it from a purely materialistic point of view. She had a hard time being honest with herself and so telling other people the absolute truth as she saw it was not as fun as it would otherwise have been. Plus there was the factor that, while she didn't really believe in it, she knew there were others who actually lived by it, so she always felt a bit bad about using it for entertainment.

"Aw c'mon," he cajoled. "Just once? I really want something to take my mind off feeling so wretched."

"I dunno," she stalled, trying to ignore the puppy-faced look he was sending her way.

"Pretty please," he pursued.

"Well... I guess," she agreed reluctantly, done in by those pleading eyes of his.

:_Really, they oughtn't be allowed_,: she thought to herself.

"But I should warn you in advance that I'm just going to say what they mean."

"that's fine," he said. "I've never gotten my future told before."

Yuka sighed a little and refrained from mentioning that only the really gullible (in her opinion) actually thought that cards with pictures on them could tell the future, so she started shuffling the cards carefully.

"As your question Querant as you cut the deck in any place that you chose," she said, presenting him the shuffled deck.

"Just one question?" he asked. "I don't know what question to ask."

"A lot of people say that that's the beginning of wisdom," Yuka said dryly.

"Everything's so topsy-turvy, it's hard to know what's what anymore," he said. "Part of me wishes you'd never dragged me out of bed and dumped me down the rabbit hole. Part of me is glad you did. I wish I knew what I was supposed to do."

"Well, I guess that one will do," Yuka said, trying to ignore the heavy mood. "Ask it and cut the deck."

"You don't seem all mystical-fortune teller," Kaname grumbled a bit at her practical tone. "Aren't you supposed to be acting mysterious and secretive?"

"Hey, you're not a paying customer, so you get what you pay for," Yuka replied with her usual attitude.

Then she smiled, trying to jolly him into a better mood.

"Besides, I don't have any of my costumes or props with me. When I worked at the sea-side I had a gypsy costume and veils and a crystal ball. It was neat. If you want the full rig-out, that'll be ten-dollars for a five-card spread, and twenty-five for the Celtic Cross."

This she said as she dealt the cards out in the particular formation on the surface of the bed-side table between them. Maybe it was because they were on the water, or perhaps there was a storm coming, but Yuka got that strange static-like feeling, like there was lighting tensing nearby.

"Mercenary fortune-teller," he said with a small smile.

"You're lucky I like you," she mumbled in reply. "I'll give you the best one at no additional cost."

Yuka pointed out the positions in her spread and told him the meanings of them, starting with the significator, which was supposed to represent _him_ specifically, then the cover, which meant his general situation, then the cross which represented his obstacles, then the beneath card which meant the root of the situation (like motivations, internal factors and past experience). She moved on to tell him about the behind card for recent past and the crown card portraying his resources and potentiality then the before card to show what lay before him in the near future to complete the cross.

"Why are those four separate from the cross shape, shouldn't they be around them?" Kaname asked.

"I don't know, that's just the way the spread was made. The meanings are arbitrary anyway," she said with a shrug. "Maybe the original designer thought that if he circled them around they'd just get read as being like the cards they were close to but more in depth instead of meaning what they're supposed to mean. Anyway, this bottom one on the line means your Self and where you stand on the issue. Next up means your environment, like the people around you. Third up means both what you hope and what you fear, kind of like your expectations. Last, if you want to see it that way, means what's going to happen in the future. Got all that?"

"Yeah, I think so," he said. "So you can really tell my future?"

Kaname was teasing her in his own quiet way, she could tell because the corner of his mouth was lifting up, and there was the dimple close to his lip that only happened when he smiled genuinely. Yuka made a face at him and started flipping the cards over.

"I thought you were supposed to reveal them one at a time."

"This is the way I read them," she grumbled. "You want it done the other way you find yourself a real fortune-teller."

She didn't tell him that she read them that way because she wasn't very good at interpreting them one at a time, and liked to have them all face up so she could get a better look at the whole picture.

"hey, what's with that look?" Kaname asked.

When Yuka had finished turning the cards face up, for a moment she'd been so taken aback by it when she'd grasped the implications of the individual meanings and their positions that she'd stared in stupefied amazement.

"I, um..." Yuka hesitated, dithering for a moment.

"Is it bad?" he asked worriedly.

"Not... not _exactly_," she replied, uncomfortably. "Maybe we should not do this. I mean, it's just silly anyway. Here. You should get some rest, I'll bet you're tired. Sanshi here can probably sing you a lullabye!" Yuka said with false brightness.

"Why are you so spooked? That's not usual for you," Kaname said, picking up directly on her sudden case of nerves.

"I'm not a believer, but this is... _eerie_," Yuka replied, actually having to repress a shiver. "I've read the cards for a lot of people during my job and I've never had one that's so..."

"So... what?"

"Accurate," she said, reluctantly. "If I had the power to look someone in the eye and tell them the exact truth so far as I could discern it, I would say precisely what the spread is saying right now."

"So what's it say?" Kaname asked her in a nervous, strangled tone.

Yuka took a deep breath to fortify herself and told him.

"Hanged Man Reversed as your significator means either a failure to make the necessary sacrifices or that the person in question is sacrificing all the _wrong_ things. It means excessive conformity and denial of an inner part of yourself for the sake of appearances."

"You're-" he was going to say making that up or lying, but he could sense her abashed honesty.

"Well what else does it say?"

"You're not going to like it," Yuka informed him.

"Tell me anyway," Kaname replied.

She shrugged and got on with it. The "entertainment" had quickly sucked any hope of a lighthearted atmosphere from their little corner of the room. The two of them looked as serious as the two men at the map-table discussing strategy.

"Your cover card is another major Arcana, the High priestess, but she's also Reversed."

"Reversed is bad?"

"Most read it as being the negative of the card's usual meaning," Yuka said. "The High Preistess is the card of intuition and spiritual enlightenment. It says that you're out of touch with your inner feelings and that you are relying too heavily on external validation instead of developing your own intuition. It also says that your unconscious is trying to tell you something but you won't listen," she recited to him frankly and without apology.

"Oh, _well_..." he didn't bother trying to deny it.

"Next up Beneath... Three of Swords. You have an awful lot of swords, and cups, but I guess that makes sense, given everything," Yuka shook her head to forestall his question and added. "Swords mean conflict, generally, and the air in them means detached intellectuals, scholars or loners. Cups mean emotional matters. The two Major Arcana you have so far are the ones that have most to do with looking inward and trusting intuition."

"What does the Three of Swords mean?"

"Heartache, separation, and emotional upheaval, severance and grief," she replied. "The Behind Ca- Uhg! Why did it have to be _that_ one!"

"Bad?"

"The Tower," Yuka said unhappily. "Another Major Arcana. It means separation and disaster. War. Unavoidable and traumatic change, whether you like it or not."

"That tracks," kaname grumbled. "Are there any good cards?"

"We'll just have to see," Yuka said.

She was one of those personalities that didn't like leaving a job half finished once she'd started it.

"Your crown card advises you about what you should do immediately to address the situation if the previous cards. And you have... the Seven of Wands."

"Oh not a sword! That's good right? I finally got a good one?" he said hopefully.

"You do," Yuka said encouragingly. "Seven of wands means determination, or strength in adversity. It means to hold firm in the face of what you fear and not take a step backwards. It means you're going to face difficulties but you have what it takes to face the odds and hold firm if you summon your inner strength."

"I... I can do that," he said, managing to sound both firm and uncertain.

Sanshi nodded emphatic encouragement at him.

"When I was a new kirin on Mt Hou, trying to choose the new Emperor from all the candidates, I went out on my own with Gyouso-sama and Risai-dono to hunt down a suuguu for Risai. I hadn't gotten a single shirei before then, not even a little bunny would bow down to me. But then a huge creature attacked Gyousou and Risai, the Toutetsu, one of the most powerful Youma of all, so rare that people thought it was just a story. I was scared, but all I could think was that I _had_ to save him. I faced it in its lair and stared it in the face, willing it to bow down to me and let them go. That's how I got Gouran."

Yuka looked at him blankly.

"The dog?"

"He's a shapeshifter," Kaname said modestly.

"Well, see, you have it in you then, you just have to use it. Your next card is Before, and it shows what you face in the immediate future, things you need to act upon or an action you need to take. Seven of Swords."

"More swords," he grumbled. "That's bad?"

"Not necessarily. Not all swords are bad," Yuka said, refraining from adding 'just most of them'. "This one means stealth. You're going to have to follow a course of action that requires cunning, or you might be engaged in a battle of wits that requires unorthodox thinking. It's also possible that there is deception involved somewhere along the way but whether you are deceiving someone or that someone is deceiving you is unclear."

"I don't lie to people, but I can usually tell if someone is deceiving me so I don't see how that could be."

"Ooh! Maybe it has to do with finding or rescuing your king!" Yuka said, forgetting for the moment that she didn't believe in fortune tellinng.

"Ah, I'll bet that's it," Kaname agreed.

"Next is the Self Card. Two of Swords means a stalemate. You're torn and indecisive. Right now you suffer under an inability to decide between head and heart. On the horns of a dilemma, you can't see which path to choose and that in turn is pulling you down into turmoil."

The two of them had a small, pregnant silence but decided it didn't need further elaboration of commentary and by mutual agreement moved on to the next. By this point, they had an audience, which they were both assiduously ignoring. Drawn over by the strange intensity of their discussion, Eishou and Ran had paused in what they were doing and were watching them curiously.

"Next your House card, shows environmental factors around you, people who will help you and things like that."

"And yet another sword," Kaname said about the depiction of the King of Swords.

"This one's actually pretty good too," Yuka soothed him. "It means you'll receive help or advice from someone, probably a man. This person is intelligent, analytical but a bit aloof, aggressive and commanding. An authoritative figure who makes balanced judgements based with clear-sighted thinking."

Yuka ignored the long, speaking look exchanged by the captain and the young general at her pronouncement and continued with Kaname's reading. They were almost done and then she could put the whole uncanny _weirdness_ behind her.

"The king of Swords usually applies to military leaders, but also equally to scholars and intellectuals. It might even mean someone who is both," she informed him. "Two more cards to go. Next one is Five of Cups... it says that you fear the most loss, emotional separation or abandonment. You are grieving and fear more grief in the future. Your doubts and regrets will affect the outcome if you let them."

"Last one," Kaname said.

Yuka felt unusually nervous as she picked up the card to turn it over. She'd never really bought in to the whole Tarot future telling thing, or at least she told herself she never did... she had never once done a reading on it, perhaps because despite the fact that she had read them for others as an occupation, she feared what they would reveal for herself and that unnerved her. She told herself that she wanted a good ending for Kaname's sake, he was going through such a tough time right then and she didn't want to make things worse by adding a feeling of premonition or foreboding on as well. She turned it over and sighed in relief.

"Judgement," she said with a smile. "Everything's going to be _alright_, Kaname. This card symbolizes rebirth. A Spiritual awakening from a period of stagnation and death. Referring back, you rebirth will stem from your determination to see things through and by not running away from your own problems or deceiving yourself about them."

Kaname nodded with solemn thoughtfulness at that and Yuka gathered up the deck and decided to switch gears.

"So, how about a game of texas hold 'em? I know tournament style."

Actually, I think I'd rather get some sleep," he said. "I still don't feel well."

Yuka nodded agreement, giving him an empathic look. He really did look like death warmed over, and truth to tell, she was actually kind of relieved he' d refused. That last reading she'd done had unnerved her. Thoroughly. She'd never had one that accurate and spot-close to the situation. It almost made her consider that maybe it wasn't all non-sense after all.

:_But then that would actually mean that I had the ability to foretell the future and I don't even want to **consider** that idea. I'm just going to call that one a rare fluke, after all, stranger things have happened. And besides, he's a Kirin... who's to say that maybe the magical Gods of this world didn't just decide that it was something Taiki needed to hear and they used my Tarot card thing as a convenient way to get him to listen_.:

That sounded plausible, if one took into account that magic was actually one of the governing principles in that world, and that the Powers That Be took a deep, intense and almost personal interest in the Kirin in specific.

:_Yeah, I'll bet if I tried reading them for an ordinary person they'd show up the same as ever. it was probably just a one-off thing, and only because there was a kirin involved_,: she thought, trying to pretend she wasn't desperately trying to convince herself of it. Reading the future was one thing no sensible person ever wanted to be able to do.

:_But even so, I think it'll just be best if I put these cards right back where I found them and forget I have them_,: she decided promptly fitting her actions to her thoughts.

"You didn't say you could tell the future," Eishou said from where he and the captain had stopped conferring over at the table.

"I can't," Yuka replied flatly. "No-one can. Those cards are just a way to part credulous gulls from their money, nothing more."

"It seemed awfully pertinent," Eishou pursued.

"It's a coincidence," Yuka maintained, preparing to zip the deck back in her bag.

:_Oh! Look at this, I missed one_,: she thought finding one loose card that had gotten away from her somehow. Curious, she looked to see which one it was.

The Devil. Like all of the Major Arcana, the card was symbolic and had more than one meaning. Read as a card signifying a person it was the card of betrayers, liars and untrustworthy people. Read as a symbolic card, it was the card of bondage, but the sort that came from within; chains that people made _by_ themselves _for_ themselves, and only they could break them.

"Huh," she grunted to herself, putting it away with the others.

She tried to ignore the feeling up her back that her previous training that the King of Kou had ordered her to undergo was going to come into use once more. He had trained her as an assassin, and set her to betray her own friend. Maybe the Devil Card was meant for her.

* * *

**ooooh... foreshadowing.**


	17. Book I: Path of Sorrows: Chapter 16

It was late in the morning of the third day of sailing the vessel when the man in the crows nest sighted their destination. Over the course of their journey, Eishou and Captain Ran had told them of thier destination. There was an island off the southwest coast of Tai that had been secured by the resistance as a training camp for the most promising and loyal recruits to receive in depth officers training. It was also the place where Eighou, Risai and the few other loyal officers that had escaped the purges by Ansen met and worked on their battle strategies. An hour later the ship pulled up to what looked like a fair-sized island made of tall-upjutting, mountainous rocks held together by densely-packed forest, all protecting a small sandy harbor on the lee side of the wind. The ship just barely fit into the tiny harbor which had a trickle of a river (really, more a stream with pretensions) flowing out of it. After they were rowed to shore, Kaname was clearly never so glad to set foot on solid land.

"Easy there," Yuka said in a lightly teasing manner as Kaname all but fell out of the boat in relief at being on solid ground.

"If it weren't full of sand, I'd be kissing it!" Kaname exclaimed, running his hands over the sun-warmed sand.

"We have a base and training camp set up in the main valley between the islands two main mountains," Eishou said briskly. "We'll rendevouz with our contacts there."

The crew that had rowed ashore with them quickly unpacked the supplies they had brought with them from the ship and started inland at a brisk pace. The beach with its gently sloping shoreline was the easiest part of the journey. Once they reached the forest line it was all uphill, quite literally. The trail was rocky and winding, and mostly overgrown with foliage. Yuka thought that even calling it a trail was being generous, goats might have had trouble with parts of it. She wasn't much daunted by it, even during the parts where the trail hugged the side of one of the mountains that seemed to drop off into deep river-carved valleys below them. The trail seemed plenty wide to her, and the bridges were appropriately planked, but Kaname seemed to dislike them intensely.

"Ah, c'mon," she coaxed when he hesitated over a foot-bridge next to a plunging waterfall after having gone a mile around a mountains curve on a narrow trail, nearly hugging the side of the rock the whole way. "You're supposed to be a kirin, you can _fly_ for crying out loud! Surely heights shouldn't bother you."

"Well they do!" Kaname replied, balking at being led across the bridge. "Especially when I've only got two legs instead of four."

"Here, hold this," she quasi-ordered their guide, divesting herself of her pack and belongings until she was wearing only her ordinary clothes.

Yuka stomped out onto the narrow foot-bridge and promptly half-cartwheeled into a handstand balanced on top of the bridge. She jigged her weight up into the air twice, then performed a handspring and flipped back onto her hands and walked herself out further onto the bridge.

"Yuka! Be careful!" Kaname admonished.

"If I can do this," she called over to him, still upside down (and ignoring the plunging drop onto the rocky stream what looked like miles below). "Then you can definitely manage to walk across it."

"Just come on across and back where it's safe, you're acting too dangerously!"

Yuka smiled widely and balanced on one hand, her form wavering a bit in the air.

"I'm not going anywhere," she called back. "Whoa..."

Her balance teetered.

"Unless, you want to come over here and show me how it's done."

"You're being reckless and foolish, put your feet down where they belong."

"Ohhh... whoaaah... gonna loose my balance," Yuka sing-songed over at him, her weight deliberately swaying from side to side.

"Yuka! You're being unsafe! You're gonna get hurt!"

"Lalalala!" she called over bouncing up and down on her hands.

"I mean it, you come back here!" he ordered her in a worried voice.

"Ahhh!" she yelled as her grip slipped suddenly on the slick surface of the bridge. "Help! Kaname!"

Where she had previously been balanced in a handstand, Yuka was now hanging off one side of the bridge, her arms wrapped around the log and her legs dangling off the side, kicking futiley.

Kaname, distressed at Yuka's change in condition, stepped out onto the bridge cautiously and step by very careful step made his way toward his reckless young friend. Yuka, for her part, struggled to regain her proper position.

"See I told you!" Kaname called over to her in an admonishing tone and he inched toward her. "You should have listened to me. I'm almost there... Just hang on!"

Kaname edged forward carefully, forgetting his own fear because of the concern for his friend.

"Here, grab my hand!" he said reaching down for her.

Yuka grinned up and him, caught her foot on the side and mounted the log easily and with no sign of difficulty. She vaulted flawlessly to her feet and tapped him on the nose smartly, smiling smugly at him the whole while.

"Well look who's decided to join me," Yuka said brightly pivoting easily on one foot and practically waltzing the rest of the way to the other side of the bridge.

"Yuka... If I weren't a kirin and therefore opposed to violence, I'd be seriously tempted to _hurt_ you right now."

"Lucky for me you're such a nice and forgiving guy," Yuka replied without any concern. "Besides, it got you across that bridge didn't it?"

"You're a brat, you know that? A brat!" he yelled at her back.

"It's alright, I love you too," she called back to him, laughing. The crew following behind them made various noises that sounded like smothered laughter.

Fortunately that was the most exiting part of their journey. The rest passed relatively uneventfully and the narrow pass that led down to the winding trail that went into the valley where the "rebel" training camp was at was reached some time later.

"How come we haven't seen any youma here?" Yuka questioned their guide on their way down the valley-trail.

"The yabouku, the tree of this island which bears plants and animals, does not have them among its branches," Eishou replied. "There is no riboku either, so the island is uninhabited, though it is _officially_ listed as belonging to the kingdom of Tai."

"I always found that a little bit strange," Yuka admitted. "How is it possible that every single form of life in any given area grows from a tree? You'd think you'd all be neck-deep in those -boku trees. I mean, where I'm from, plants have seeds that grow off from them that they perpetuate their type with. Wherever the seed falls and takes root in the soil is where it grows at and the cycle goes on and on. How do you all plant crops?"

Yuka kept following the train of thought without listening to their guide's attempts to interrupt and explain.

"Or do your farmers just sit under the right Youboku and wait for the plants to fall out of it? But that can't be, I've definitely seen farmers working the fields. It makes no sense! Are you saying that every single blade of grass underfoot grew from a single tree? If that's so, then how did they get to where they are, wouldn't they just fall from the branches and pile up around the base like unharvested nuts?"

"hm, you know she has a point..." kaname added. "How do they get from a tree to where they are?"

"If you will listen, I shall explain," Eishou said with a slightly exasperated edge to his tone. "I'm not sure how its done in the place you come from-" he held up a hand to forestall their explanation. "And I'm pretty sure I don't really _want_ to know about it either. But here in this world when the land shuffles off the death of sleep, the yaboku go into blossom. The treetops burst into flower and out of those flowers come little fluffy bits of seed that get taken away on the wind."

"Like dandelion puffs?" Kaname ventured.

Eishou looked blankly back at him.

"We call that time The Spreading," he continued. "Out of those wind-seeds grow all the different types of plants. Animals also grow out of the flowers on the yaboku, but their ranka fruits take a little longer to develop. By the time that the plants have taken growth the animals are about ready to eat them."

"What about crops?" Yuka pursued. "I know I've seen farmers planting them, do they just pull up the right ones from wherever they fall?"

"When a farm-crop is harvested the farmers keep a tiny pod-like shell that is empty. Shortly before the Spreading, the farmers all plow their fields and plant the pods in the soil, then when the spreading occurs the pods are filled with the plant."

Kaname and Yuka exchanged a long, speaking look and shrugged in unison.

"It seems a little strange, but I guess if that's what works for them," Yuka said, shaking her head a bit.

The sun was setting and turning the air to pinkish-gold when they finally arrived at the training base nestled down at the bottom of the valley. The base consisted of what looked like one long building and several out-buildings centered around a large central courtyard where young men and women were being drilled and trained in the use of their weapons. Yuka recognized several of the training apparatus from her own stint in weapons training, there were pells (and rotating pells) to teach a soldier their movements and reflexes, archery butts, charging yards... and those were the extent of the ones she knew. There we other types of training set-ups, ones which she had only ever thought existed in martial arts movies.

"That central building is the main hall of the compound," Eishou said. "That's where the dining hall, barracks and officers billeting are located. The bath-house and laundry is out beyond that."

A troop of trainees jogged in unison past them, all of them staring at the new arrivals with varying degrees of curiosity.

"The pavilion you see up there is the strategy and meeting hall," Eishou pointed to a slightly open place on a nearby hillock next to what looked like a cherry blossom tree.

"This looks like a set from a movie," Yuka murmured.

"Yeah," Kaname agreed.

He pointed out various other buildings, then lastly led them to a small, private-looking residence just off the main billeting for the soldiers. It was heavily defended, placed inside four walls, with sentry towers placed all around and its own tiny little garden.

"This is where you and your friend will be staying Taiho," Eishou said respectfully. "As you can see, we have taken all security precautions that we could on such short notice. Please be comfortable here, and if there is anything you require just ask for the quartermaster. If you wish, you may take this time to get settled in. I will have someone leave you some food outside the door so as not to disturb you if you wish to rest. I know it has been a long journey."

"Yes, thank-you," Kaname said politely.

Eishou bowed left the two of them in the relatively small private residence and clearly went to go review his troops and make his plans.

"Well," Kaname said with a little forced cheer, looking around them both. "This certainly looks... homey."

"If your idea of homey is smack in the middle of an army training camp surrounded on all sides by armed guards," Yuka replied.

"At least the guards are all on _our_ side," Kaname pointed out. "They're here to protect us."

"Yeah, well, just because something is meant to keep others from getting in at you, doesn't mean that it can't be used just as well to keep you from getting out."

"Alright, what's the matter?" Kaname demanded. "You've been in a strange mood ever since we started on this trip. It was sort of alright when we were on ship but you've been edgy the whole time."

"It's just that..." Yuka hesitated.

Yuka's suspicious instincts had been yelling at her even since Eishou had announced his plans to take them to a safer location. Now that they were here, she felt even more tense than ever. She didn't like feeling so powerless, not to mention how isolated they were now on that island. She recalled that when she had worked for the King of Kou he had kept her effectively quarantined from everyone but a few silent servants on an isolated estate out in the middle of no-where. Her body and reflexes, with the aid of the hinma, had been trained by battling youma. The situation looked similar enough on the surface to make her feel so wary and on edge that she had to almost physically fight the urge to get up and pace and find an escape route.

"Go on," Kaname encouraged.

"I don't like the feeling that my options are being limited one by one. Ever since this Eishou guy showed up we've more or less be acting on his guidance alone. He was the one who led us to the ship, we couldn't really go anywhere or act freely since then."

"I'm sure if we ask we'll be given free run of the camp," Kaname encouraged. "And besides, I thought I said that Eishou can be trusted."

"Free run of the camp, but what about free run of the island?" Yuka countered.

At Kaname's hesitant look she felt triumphant.

"He'd probably worry about something happening to us if we went off on our own," kaname argued.

"There aren't any youma," Yuka replied.

"You've seen how dangerous the terrain is. I can't change forms and fly, so if you fell down a gorge and broke your neck we'd be S.O.L. Besides, we've spent most of the day traveling around, aren't you tired yet?"

"I saw some hinma on our way in..." Yuka said, eyes lighting up as she thought of something. "I know you feel uneasy about just having Sanshi and Gouran. We could go out and you could practice your kirin subjugation ritual or whatever."

"I dunno," Kaname said uneasily. "It's getting dark. Eishou probably wouldn't like it if we strayed far from camp."

It was on the tip of her tongue to say that he didn't need to know about it but she thought better of it.

"I guess you're right," Yuka said instead. "I am pretty tired. I'll probably just grab a hot bath and go to bed."

It wasn't exactly a lie, but kaname looked a little wary of her sudden capitulation. It wasn't very characteristic of her to give in with so little fight. Usually, he wound up going along with her on whatever mad plan she had cooked up just to make sure she stayed out of trouble.

It was the eating hour so the bathouse was blessedly quiet. A full, proper bath after several days on the open seas with only bucket-washes felt heavenly to her. When she returned to the quarters she shared with Kaname dressed in a hoh, the simple kimono-like garment that both men and women wore in that world, she found food waiting for her. Her kirin friend must have been more tired than he'd let on for his portion of rice and seaweed was already gone and he was laid out on his futon fast asleep. Yuka tucked into hers without delay (suddenly realizing how hungry she actually was at the sight of food) and debated the idea of getting a better look around the camp. However the sight of the nice soft futon laid out so enticingly was too much for her to resist.

:_I guess I'm more tired than I thought_,: Yuka thought sleepily as she supressed a yawn.

She had thought to go out and take a look around, permission or no permission. The moon was just about full but even she knew it would probably be foolish to try it.

:_After all, it'd be pretty embarrassing to twist an ankle stumbling around and have to wait to be found in the morning. And it's been such a long day already. I guess Kaname's advice really is for the best_.:

Seeing no reason to fight it, other than the fact she wanted to be obstinate and contrary, Yuka laid out her own sleeping futon and didn't bother fighting off sleep when it descended swiftly to claim her.


	18. Book I: Path of Sorrows: Chapter 17

"You think this is it?" Kaname questioned her.

"I sure hope so, " Yuka replied, wiping sweat from her brow and taking another swig from her water bottle.

They had taken themselves out from the camp for a long walk around the island because they both found found themselves to be almost constantly underfoot on the rebel training camp that morning. After a near-disaster on the obstacle course for Yuka and Kaname nearly stumbling into the trap-hole and breaking an ankle, they'd taken themselves off someplace where they wouldn't be in the way.

Unless one counted the riboku on Mt Hou that Kaname had been born from, neither of them had ever seen one of the life-giving trees, so they had decided that they'd go and search it out to see what one looked like. Their search had taken them up the side of a steep, craggy hillside that was gradated on one side and dropped into a nearly sheer cliff on the other. At the very top of the miniature mountain was an enormous tree with large spreading branches, the roots twining in and out of the weathered stones of the hill like serpents. There was water weeping down the sides of the rock in little rivulets into a small brook at the base of the cliff.

"It looks like those people-fruit are like the ones I had described to me anyway," Kaname continued.

Yuka started climbing up the steep, almost cliff-like, hill, navigating the best trail up the rock while Kaname followed closely behind her. The hill was almost more like a miniature mountain so it took them a little while to find a good trail up it. They rested at the top at the base of the tree and drank the last of their water.

"I wonder if it makes me a cannibal that I think those fruits are looking sort of delicious," Yuka muttered.

The ranka fruit looked sort of like leather-wrapped melons dangling from the branches of the trees and were sort of greyish-gold in color.

"I wonder how you tell if they're ripe," Kaname mused. "Do they just fall down, or do their parents come along and pick them?"

"I dunno," Yuka said lightly as the clouds rolled by in the nice breeze at the top of the hill.

"Kinda wish I had my paints with me," Kaname mumbled. "It's such a nice view."

The island was a small one and from their vantage point they could see the ocean spread out on one side and the small chain of craggy mountains on the other side of the mountains with the valley that hid the training camp nestled in between two of the biggest ones, near a wide flat field and a small forest of bamboo. Larger forests dotted the islands, growing right up the bottom of the steep mountains and drinking in the mists that hung in the valleys between them. Rivulets of rivers plunged down steep, rocky hillsides. It looked like a painting from out of an old Chinese storybook.

They spent the next few minutes in companionable silence, enjoying the feel of the breeze up there on the top of the hill. Yuka was still thirsty after their long steep climb to the top, and remembered the water weeping from the stone near the roots of the tree.

"I think I'll climb down and refill the water bottle," Yuka said.

The hill was shaped a bit oddly, there was a side that was relatively easy-sloped, with a lower gradient, and the side that the tree sloped outwards over was a vertical drop with the roots of the trees weaving in and out and over the jaggy rocks that tumbled down the sides.

"Yuka, be careful," Kaname said in a way that felt like it was becoming habitual to him.

"Don't sweat it," she assured him. " I got this."

She seized one of the rope-like roots and lowed herself down, climbing down the tumble of rock toward the place where she heard water trickling over stone. Kanme stayed at the edge of the cliff, but due to the shape of the hill side and the obstacles in the way, quickly lost sight of her.

"Hey Kaname!" Yuka called excitedly from where she had climbed.

"What?" he called back, fearful of her safety.

"You're not going to believe what I found!" she called back.

"What is it?"

"There's a cave in the side of this rock! It looks like it was carved out by the water..."

A minute or two passed and there was no sign of his friend.

"Yuka?" he called over the side nervously.

Unlike Yuka, Kaname was more the dreamy artistic type rather than the athletic sort. He was not as sanguine about lowering himself over the side of a cliff by some tree roots as his friend was.

:_Don't tell me she went and decided to investigate the cave_,: Kaname thought to himself, having the feeling in his gut that that was exactly what she had done. She was the sort of person who would do something like that.

"Oh my... kaname, it's incredible! I've never seen anything like it!"Yuka yelled out, sounding really excited.

"What is it?" he asked, too afraid to climb down and see what she'd found for himself.

There was no answer for a long moment.

"Yuka, come back up here," he said worriedly.

"Just a sec," she called back.

There was the sound of a few grunts and he was relieved a few minutes later when it seemed that she had decided to listen to him for a change. Her head popped up from over the side and she pulled herself up the rest of the way using a tree root. After seeing that she was safe and sound with the water she had went down to fetch, he suddenly got curious about the place she had found.

"So what did you find?" he asked.

"I'm not exactly sure," she replied honestly. "I didn't get very far before you called me back. But when I went inside the cave there was this still pool of water, but the strange thing was I could have sworn that I saw some small shapes in it and they looked like they were moving on thier own, or like they had faces. And when I looked around, I saw what looked sort of like a whole lot of fireflies all dancing around through the air and the roots of the tree were all around in the cave through the rock, but it looked like the roots were all glowing. It was really neat."

Huh, sounds interesting," was all Kaname said, knowing full well that he'd never climb down the cliff to go and look at it for himself.

"Maybe when I regain my ability to turn into a kirin, I'll go and look at it," he commented to Yuka.

"Okay," she replied. "And speaking of your magical kirin powers, maybe we can find something around here for you to subjugate."

So their little exploration walk had been made with _two_ purposes in mind. They had climbed all the way up to see the tree because that was where they had said that they were going and a kirin could not knowingly tell a lie, but Yuka had been very careful to make sure they said nothing about that place being the _only_ place that they would go. In other words, she'd never said anything about what they would be doing _after_ they found the tree.

"Are you sure about this? I'm pretty badly out of practice and some of those things can be really mean and nasty," he said.

"Relax," she assured him. "I've been trained to fight against youma, and the whole reason we're doing this in the first place is because you're out of practice. If you don't start practicing now, you might regret it later, so let's get going."

The two of them walked back down the cliff, and out around it to where the trickle of water from the cave made a little waterfall over the stones that flowed along in a little brook.

"I can sense something unusual about this stream," Kaname said excitedly.

"Well let's follow it then and see what we get," Yuka said.

They continued to walk along its bank. Some of the terrain was a little rough (there was one gorge in particular with steep sides and huge rocks to navigate around that plunged down a series of naturally carved stone steps that looked like they had been made for giants) but it was all at least down hill so it wasn't too bad. At one point it was joined by two larger streams into something that looked like a deep pool.

"Huh," kaname noted in an interested tone. "This pool had a moving current in it and I can sense..."

He stood firm and tall, his facial expression serious, as though he were concentrating on something very hard. He raised his hand, palm up and let out a wordless shout. The pool, which had been a deep mossy green with a mirror-like surface of calm despite the fact that it was in the joining of several streams, suddenly started to swirl about the surface flew up in defiance of gravity, forming a water-spout. Out of the center of the vertical tunnel of wind and water stood a strange creature. It's form was constantly moving and shifting, one moment it looked like a spiney fish and the next like a long snake. It had two huge glowing greenish-blue eyes.

"What is it?" Yuka asked, suddenly feeling a pang of insecurity about her ability to fight and defeat such a creature.

All of the Youma she had ever faced and defeated had all been solidly physical. This creature looked like it was made of pure water.

"A Hinma," Kaname replied. "It's a water-spirit that can posses a human."

"Oh I know all about _those_ things," Yuka muttered darkly with distaste.

Kaname firmed his stance and squared his shoulders, looking the mysterious creature in the eyes. He held out his hand before him and began to sketch symbols in the air chanting

"Rin Bou Tou Sha Kai Jin Retsu Zan Gyou!"

He inhaled and shouted

"By the will of the heaven's and the laws of nature I bid thee obey my sovereign command!"

He locked eyes with the creature and the lock was more like a struggle. Yuka could see the thing clearly trying to brake his gaze but unable to. It even sent an enormous spout of water shooting at him, but since it could not touch the kirin while under the bounds of the spell, the water went to one side and Kaname to his great credit, did not flinch. The creature shifted its form to a snarling dog, the a roaring tiger to a huge serpent, and to an enormous demon-creature, shouting and stamping its feet, but Kaname forced himself to remain unmoved. It was several long, tense moments later when the creature, exhausted from its attempts, bowed deeply to Kaname and flowed into him.

Yuka smiled and applauded his courage.

"Great job, you did it," she lauded him. Kaname replied with a small, shy smile.

"I did, didn't I?" he said. "Chinjin says that he is very old, and has been in this pool and part of this place since the island rose from the sea."

"That's cool," Yuka said in admiration. "Hinma can be very useful."

Kaname looked at her with those Old Soul eyes of his, clearly tempted to ask her about what the King of Kou had done when he had put one inside of Yuka. She had been very vague about it, not commenting other than to say that it had taught her how to fight and enabled her to understand the language spoken in this world. Kaname was not an expert in the use of his special abilities as a kirin, but he often got a strange sense about Yuka, like there was something about her time there before that lingered with her. Now that he had subjugated a hinma, Kaname knew what it was because Chinjin (his new hinma) supplied the information to him. A hinma, if ordered to, could change more about a person it was put into than just their physical seeming and combat ability, it could also sometimes make small changes to their minds, a lot like a hypnotic suggestion. The traces of which, Chinjin informed him, could linger long past the time that the hinma no longer occupied its host. Kaname doubted that Yuka was aware herself of what might or might not have been done to her, but kaname sorrowed on her behalf, for Chinjin informed him that the liberties that the former King of Kou had taken had not been kind ones.

Chinjin informed him of the nature of the changes that the hinma that had once occupied Yuka's body had made to her mind. The king who had made the commands had needed the girl to be far more obedient and trusting than she was naturally. Without the intercession of the hinma, yuka would have questioned his commands too much and might have rebelled against him, but that hinma had made tiny changes to her heart and mind, twisting them back in on itself. It had made her more tractable, obedient to the one who held her leash and had whispered a certainty in her mind of her rightness and about her being entirely dependent on the king of Kou's goodness to survive in that world. If she hadn't been a fighter sort, Yuka would still have felt obligated to do Kou-ou's bidding just for the kindness he bestowed on her.

:_Poor Yuka, she doesn't even know that the Hinma changed her inside_,: Kaname thought pityingly. :_She'll need more than time to cure what was done to her, that's for sure._:

Chinjin stirred restlessly as they passed the hill where the tree grew that they had visited earlier was. When Kaname internally questioned him about his sudden unease, he wasn't able to put thing in a way that Kaname could understand clearly. All he understood was something along the lines of some kind of tide had chosen to move.

They walked back to the rebel camp before the sun could begin to set on them. Eishou was hard at work overseeing the training of his troops and in-gathering information about the supplies and depositions of his enemy troops. They were, as usual it would seem, at loose ends, so they ate and played cards until they felt like going to sleep. Kaname's last worried thought was that he hoped they'd find Gyousou soon.


	19. Book I: Path of Sorrows: Chapter 18

**This and the next are probably my two favorite chapters in the whole story. I hope you like them as much as I do.**_  
_

_Whiin daine... a lotica... si kah to'klah... lu vae_...

Yuka woke with a strange, beautiful song echoing in her mind. The voice that sang it sounded high and pure, like the voice of a goddess or a faerie, and even now when she was awake it still rang in her head. She felt an odd sort of tugging on her, like someone was calling her from far away, summoning her. She wasn't sure how she could know there was someone calling her, but it was as undeniable to her as the sound of her father calling her before him. And just as she knew there was someone calling her, she also knew where that being wanted her to go. She must go to the cave.

:_There's something down there in that place, something I need, or something that needs me… I can just feel it_.:

Womanly intuition was usually frowned upon, but Yuka recalled all the many times she had decided to ignore the voice inside of her that tried to tell her things, and all of the trouble that she had gotten into because of it. The debacle with Youko and the King of Kou was a rather shining example of what happened when she didn't listen to herself.

:_All the more reason I should go and take a look_,: Yuka thought.

There had been something about the waters that looked like pure magic made manifest that had pulled at something inside of her with a force that was every bit as palpable as two opposite magnets being drawn to each other. She quietly pulled on her clothes and snuck quietly out beyond the bounds of the sleeping camp without anyone the wiser. Strangely, the sentries that kept watch over the walls seemed to miss her passing, it was like thier eyes slid right past her, like she wasn't even there. Yuka began to wonder if this was a dream.

_Alae ri'ah... sii chesti..._

:_This must be a dream?_: she thought as she definitely heard that high, pure voice, singing at her again, calling her.

The trail back up to the steep hill with the riboku tree was more difficult to navigate in the dark, but after a time she reached the place. She climbed up the hill and then lowered herself down the cliffside by the tree roots as she had done earlier that day until she reached the entrance of the cave. It was little more than a deep crag in the stone side of the hill at first, difficult to squeeze into, but it widened gradually as it twisted deep down into the small mountain. At first she only had only the moonlight filtering down into the cave to guide her, but as she climbed around and over the stones that littered the floor of the craggy, narrow entrance-cave, there came a light from ahead, deeper within the cave. It wasn't eh warm, golden flicker of fire, but rather the same pure silver-white light that came from the moon, or lightning.

:Curiouser and curiouser…: she thought wryly at herself.

She emerged from the narrow entrance way into a wide round cave with stone steps that looked naturally carved leading down to a pool in the bottom.

:_Wow_…: Yuka thought, entranced by a sense of wonder that stole over her.

The pool was not an ordinary pool of water but was a great well-spring of misty, pearl-like light, a luminescent moon-glow with a rainbow sheen of glittering shimmer flowing over it like oil over water. In the air danced motes of pure light and magic, flitting and flickering here and there like little fireflies, with long streamers of opalescent light trailing out behind them like tails on a comet, the colors shifting and changing as she watched. Yuka sat down on the floor of the cave to stare, enraptured and delighted. The scene filled her with a sense of wonder that she hadn't felt since she had been a small child, before and life (and death) had come intruding on her too young.

:_I feel_...: her thoughts trailed off into a dazed wonderment, and the idea that she could waste away into nothing and she wouldn't care a bit if she could just stay there in that place that was the closest she had ever been to pure, unalloyed joy.

Yuka, who never looked at anything anymore without looking for the part of it that was inevitably going to stab her, felt her sorrows begin to fade away into a feeling of optimism. It was the sort of hopefulness that came from a being that had never been out in the world and never knew how it could make you bleed. Harsh experience had made Yuka a "realist" in the sense that if things were going well, she expected them to go wrong at any moment, and the idea that getting close to people would eventually bring pain. However, buried deep, deep down within her was a tiny, hard-shelled kernel of hope; the hope that there would come a day when she could reach her hand out into the world and not be scratched by thorns.

:_It's like part of me is being pulled over, or like there's something inside me that is being recognized by this place_.:

It was hard to describe, even in her own thoughts. Part of it was a bit like deja vu, the feeling she had been there before, but another part of it was the feeling that the place itself had somehow recognized her, or like it had been waiting for her. She knew that was impossible because she had never been there before, still there was something oddly welcoming about the place. She'd been called there.

She drifted over, closer to the pool, closer to the feeling of happiness, as though she were half in a dreamstate. She wanted to touch it, wanted to laugh and to dance and to sing out...

It even sounded to her like she could hear small soft voices singing in words to distant and indistinct to understand, a song that was filled with joy, it pulled from her an upwelling of glad emotions in reply, as though some part of her was resonating with it. For once Yuka forgot her attitude of prickly independence, cast aside her cynicism and was on her feet and dancing for no other reason than pure fun. A sourceless wind from out of nowhere kicked up around her, riffling her hair and tugging her clothing pulling a song in answer from her. The iridescent white fairie-motes swirled around her drifting on the wind and enfolding her in music and joy, and her whole heart answered in gladness, letting out all of the pure emotions that she always kept sealed away from the world, protected from the knowledge that she was forever going to be hurt by it. Yuka let herself feel innocent joy and innocent happiness as though she had never once been betrayed. She let her heart lift with the feeling that if she closed her eyes she could leave the whole world behind and soar upwards on the wind, utterly free of all constraints, even herself.

Suddenly there was a great, heaving throb, as though her body was thrummed by the beat of an enormous drum. A specter formed of shimmering blue-white light smeared out from her body and stared straight back at her, smiling like a child with a wind-wild expression of freedom and capriciousness.

:_I look...**beautiful**_,: Yuka thought, tears suddenly stinging the backs of her eyes.

It was how she'd always imagined herself looking if she'd been born as someone else other than her fathers unwanted daughter, raised in that place by people who didn't like her, a girl with no real friends and no feeling of belonging. It was how she'd imagined herself looking when she was finally, completely free. The specter danced around her, flying up impossibly into the air, bound by nothing and free in ways that Yuka could only look upon with envy.

Yuka wasn't sad because she looked beautiful, she sorrowed because she knew she would never be able to look that way. She would never see the world with such innocence, with such optimism. The sorrows and betrayals she had already underwent and the pitiable creature they had twisted her into, and the weight of her sins, would never let her be that person. She was Yuka Sugimoto; unwanted daughter, tool for a king, betrayer of friends... a sword without a hilt, one that cut open her friends and her enemies alike.

Beside the first white spectre appeared another form of herself, this one with her customary scowl in place, one who looked out at the world with jaded eyes, knowing that sooner or later someone was going to find a problem with her, and that if she wanted to hold her head up, she'd better be ready to fight with all she had. This one too danced in the wind around her, but Yuka recognized the "dance" as being one of the freestyle sword-forms.

:_Is that all I am_?: she wondered with a feeling of sadness.

The first spectre was all capriciousness, a wind that could bring storm or sunshine. The second a cold, sharp blade that cut into the world without remorse because it had been forged into its shape and now had no other purpose. Yet another spectre of Yuka appeared beside the third, this one gazing back at her from behind the glasses she sometimes used to read with, with the same sort of distant half-focused gaze Yuka recognized as her scholarly face; it reminded her of all the times she'd hidden herself away in the estate library hoping they'd forget she existed, or spirited copies of her very favorite books out into the woods to read undisturbed and unmolested out in the thick woods that surrounded the Main House. The third spectre joined the other two, dancing with the grace of the trees swaying in the wind.

:_Is this... **me**_?:

More spectres, weaker in light than the others, smaller and lesser somehow, joined the first in a strange sort of whirling dance in the white wind surrounding her. One flowed like water, another moved with an oddly graceful solidity. Yuka saw in them things she'd always wished to see in herself but never really quite dared to believe in. But there was a third one, one that appeared breifly, for only a single flickering flash. It was made of red and gold and orange, like a living ember brought to life. For the single instant it was there Yuka locked eyes with it and the knowledge came to her... this was her core. Energy, and fierce passion, a force that gave and consumed life. As soon as the realization hit her, the flaming spectre was gone.

The whirlwind of light and color that surrounded her suddenly froze, the dancing mot of magic looking like snowflakes suspended in midair. As clearly as if someone was standing right next to her she heard her own voice multiplied many times over.

"Who are you? What do you want?"

"That's a stupid question," Yuka muttered resentfully, glaring at the glimmering ghosts of herself surrounding her. "What does it matter?"

"You'll never move on your own path if you don't know where you want to go," the voices replied. "You've already stumbled and lost your way, hurting and betraying others, because you don't know."

Yuka felt the now-familiar stab of guilt in her chest at the reminder of just how far she had been willing to go, who she had been willing to hurt and what she had been willing to sacrifice to get what she felt was hers by right. She could say that the only world she'd known until then had been one where only those ruthless enough to take what they wanted got even the smallest scrap of notice or affection from her father... and she had so desperately craved his love. She could make excuses for herself but Yuka had already decided that she wasn't going to lie to herself or pretend that what she had done hadn't been wrong.

"I... I'm," she mumbled.

She was what, exactly? She was Yuka Sugimoto... "Sugimoto" because her father had not wanted to share his illustrious Family Name with an unexpected (and unwelcome) bastard child.

:_So I was hidden away like a shameful secret at the family estate in the countryside until I was old enough to attend school on my own!_:

Her father scowled at the sight of her, he'd never once smiled in her presence. She was an inconvenience, one that was only slightly lessened when she achieved something of worth. A young Yuka, starved for his love, had nearly killed herself getting something, anything, that would make him the least bit happy with her.

:_And it didn't stop with him_,: Yuka realized with a feeling akin to horror as she reviewed her memories and behavior.:The King of Kou...: Yuka realized with a slightly sickened feeling.

He had been a man cut from the exact same cloth that her father was, wealthy, stern, powerful. A man who _expected_ things from her.

Something she'd read in a book once came back to taunt her. "A girl who does not receive the love she needs from her father will find it in any other man who will give it to her."

"Such a good little girl..."

Yuka whirled around to see standing before her the stern-visaged specter of the king she had followed and believed in, who had lied to her and used her and discarded her when she was no longer of use to him, then turned around and beckoned her back to his side, twisting her heart and emotions so that her envy and hatred fed on itself. She had once bowed her head to him, whole-heartedly believing everything he said to her; that _she_ was the one, that _she_ was precious, chosen, _special_... and that meek, crybaby Youko was the one who had usurped _her_ destiny.

"You!" Yuka snarled, her body crouching into a fighting stance, anger spiking, ready to attack.

"Why so angry, child? Didn't I offer you everything you wanted? You asked for a great destiny, and I gave you one. You wanted power and I gave it to you."

"You tricked me!" she screamed at him, enraged. "You used me. You had me trained as an assassin and set me against my own best friend!"

"I didn't do any of these things," the King replied. "You did them yourself. You were the one who wanted what wasn't yours. You took the training of your own free will, you hunted down your friend on your own cognizance. No-one forced you into anything, you could have left of your own accord any time you wanted. Admit that it was your own desire and your own lust for power that kept you in my plans, such a good little pawn."

Yuka could do nothing more than shake with mingled rage and shame at the truth in his words. It hurt more than anything ever had. She, who always prided herself on her independence, on never depending on anyone for anything, had given herself entirely over to his power... and it had all been lies.

:_But they were lies that I believed in because I **wanted** to believe in them_,: Yuka recriminated herself.

She felt like such a fool.

:_Worse than the loss of what little ability I have to trust the words of other people_...:

What about your ability to trust in your own self? The voices finished for her.

Yes what of that? If she could be so easily led astray, if she could allow her jealousy and desire to twist her into a creature without remorse that would do anything for what she wanted, how could she ever trust herself? Where was her inner voice? Where was her line in the sand? How would she ever be worthy of anything if she had nothing of her own to stand on?

If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything.

And she had fallen. She had failed over and over again, so many times that she often wondered why she didn't just give up. She told herself that she started off with good intentions, and that she could change everything for the better, and that she could undo the past but she carried deep within her the knowledge that was inevitably revealed to her in the pale light of the dawn, when her world lay in splinters around her, that her wounds wouldn't heal and that she would be left only with the bitter taste of loss once more.

"I'm supposed to be better," she croaked hoarsely to her shadows, her eyes stung and her heart felt heavy. "It's all supposed to be over with, but I can't see what I'm supposed to be when it's "all better." The only world I know is this twisted thing inside of me. How can I figure out what it means to be "honest" or "virtuous" when they're just words? What do I trust in, when I know I can't trust in myself?"

The spectres of herself could offer her no advice.

* * *

**Please reveiw and tell me what you thought. Was my characterization spot on or waaay off the mark?  
**


	20. Book I: Path of Sorrows: Chapter 19

**Soundtrack Escaflowne OST: Sora... you tube dot com /watch?v=ztHQXIIRnss&list=FL6xC3W5PFeUA0wMO7-Y4l6w&index=1&feature=plpp_video**

**(sheesh, could this site be more anal about outside links?!) you can find it on you tube (one word, not two) if you want to enjoy a little soundtrack to the chapter, that's the song you should go with.  
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**_Win Daine... a lotica...En val to ri... si lo ta..._**

That song that had called her to the cave seemed to echo all around her. It wasn't coming from Yuka's ghost-shadows she wasn't sure where it was coming from, but there was something about the voice. Something that seemed to resonate with her, it sounded like lonliness, and yet at the same time, there was something strangely encouraging about it too.

:_Well there must be **something** __about me that's worth another look_!: Yuka thought, her innate stubbornness kicking in. :_There were times when it seems like I cast everything aside, betrayed friend and kind strangers alike, in order to chase my own ambitions but there must be **something** that I've held onto, something I couldn't give up._:

The immediate and cynical answer that came to her was 'her pride.'

:_Well actually_,: she considered a little wryly. :_That's not entirely **un**true_.;

Growing up in a household where she was unwanted, despised and ignored, looked upon as a burden, her pride was all she'd had to cling to. Everyone in her classes called her aloof and stuck-up, and her own isolation just made her cling that much more tightly to her pride.

:_Which in turn makes people dislike me even more_...: she acknowledged.

It was a vicious cycle. Yuka was too observant of people at times, she witnessed how they worked and interacted, her innate intelligence always insisted on pointing out to her their complex social systems at the same time that her cynical nature picked up on the layers of falsehood and socially acceptable lies and confomity that supported that system. Part of what had made it so difficult for her to get along with girls her own age was thier insistence on group loyalty. At the same time, was hard to admit to herself how often she felt jealous of the idiots surrounding her for their ability to accept each other as friends. The knowledge that they had something she lacked just made her feel even more isolated. She looked down on them for their insipid naiveté even as she envied them for the fact that they didn't look at the world through jaded eyes. That they had each other and she was alone just made her cling to her pride more tightly because it was something she did have, and the tighter she wrapped herself up in it the wider the gap between her and anyone else became.

:_Now it's like I can't even imagine what it would be like to be them. I don't think I could do it. I know that if I tried to fit in, I'd only be certain that sooner or later one of them was going to turn on me._:

She wasn't a healthy, well-adjusted individual. She dreaded having to go back home because, unlike Youko, Yuka just _didn't fit in_.

:_Is that it_?: she wondered with a start, a sudden notion seizing her.

She thought back over her behavior. She had wanted to cross over with Youko into another world because she knew that she didn't fit in in this one; her home wasn't a home where she was welcome, her family taught her only that the weak were food for the strong, and she didn't have any real friends. That misplaced feeling was the reason why she had been so very certain that she belonged not in that world but this one. It was even sort of the reason why she had wanted so badly to seize Youko's position, she wanted a definite place in the world so badly, people who needed her and couldn't do without her (instead of being met with indifference).

:_Is it really something so simple_?: she wondered to herself.

**_Fin Dein... a loluca... en dagu a... sei lein... Vi fa-ru, les shutai, rika liin..._**

There was something about the air around her, something in the strange dancing power and the sense of wonder that filled her that made her suddenly long to question everything she'd taken for granted up until now. Yuka wanted to cast aside the world she had been given with all of its cutthroat cynicism and grasp onto her own path with both hands and carve out a new way that didn't rely on pulling down everyone around her in order to rise up.

Her father had told her that those who succeeded in life were those who were ruthless enough to grasp power and use it. In her father's world, either a person had tools or they were one, and if a tool was no longer useful it was put aside. Yuka had no longer been useful to the King of Kou and he had certainly put her aside. Considering all of that, she hadn't seen much that would make her doubt her father's teachings.

:_And yet_...: she wondered to herself. :_Can that be all there is_?:

No matter which world she went to, Yuka knew that she was a person who wasn't really wanted or needed. Sure, she'd gotten Taiki to his proper place, but once they found and restored his king to the throne Yuka was certain that she wouldn't have a purpose there anymore. She could go back to her home, but she just couldn't imagine why she would want to return to that place where not even the servants wanted her around. But... there had to be more to life than being strong or powerful, there had to a place where she was met with more than indifference.

:_That place... I want to find it,_: she thought longingly.

**_Fin dein a loluca... Si katigura yeuveii... _**

She had a small taste of it, when she was by Kaname's side. He didn't mind her, he even seemed to need her sometimes. She had someone who needed her, someone to protect. It wasn't "home" or "family" but it was something more than she'd ever had before.

:_And in order to protect it, I'll_...: Yuka paused, feeling that same familiar inclination to do whatever it took to achieve her goals rise within her and that made her hesitate now.

When she got determined to do something, she had discovered that her views of right and wrong became blurred, she became so fixated on the world she wanted that she lost sight of what she was doing to get it.

:_How do I know? What do I do?:_ she wondered in agony.

Yuka wasn't someone naturally inclined to empathy, how the hell was she supposed to tell if she was hurting someone by her actions or not? She'd always been of the mind that you didn't make an omelet without breaking some eggs.

**_Alouea... sii che'sti...  
_**

"My heart isn't mended, not by a long shot," she admitted to herself. "But I know this much at least, I've failed and I've fallen but I haven't given up..."

Even when she was wrong. Maybe it was just her pride or maybe she was just naturally stubborn but Yuka wanted to believe that there was still a chance for her to make it right, that there was redemption for her and a way for her to learn how to make the decisions that didn't come naturally.

"I can't take it back and living in regret would be nothing more than letting the past cripple me in the present, but I can still keep moving forward with all I've learned of both my weakness and my strength."

It wasn't perfect, but there was so little in the world that was perect. Yuka, who had already fallen and given in to weakness, knew she would have twice as hard a time as a person of strength who had never known what it was to give in.

"But I'm ready for the fight!" She challenged the shadows around her.

The light-shadows stared back at her in their own way, their voices filled with a strange echoing resonance as they said

"**We have always been here, if you will accept the weight of your choices, then you will not face them unaided. You will master all that is within you**."

"What does that mean?" Yuka wondered aloud.

In reply, her misty shadows suddenly flared up as motes of opalescent light from the frozen "snow" in the air that had whirled around her before it had suddenly stopped began to coalesce on her ghostly doppelgangers. They brightened to almost blinding brilliance, the differences within the various forms became more pronounced, as if taking on the aspects of a different Power. One of them seemed to dance and float lightly like leaves being born up on a small whirlwind, another was straight and proud and true taking the shape it was meant to, a third seemed to sway gently but remain rooted firmly, like a tree.

**_Sii entina..._**

"This is my redemption round, bring it on!"

With that, the various spirit-forms blurred right back into her body, making her flesh and bones quiver as though she were standing next to a bass speaker at a really loud rock concert. She throbbed and felt more alive than she had ever done before, like her mortal flesh had been filled as tight as a water balloon about to burst and yet instead of feeling stretched thin she felt jubilant. Yuka laughed at nothing so filled was she with a sort of frenzied joy that it seemed to border on madness for a wing whipped her hair wild around her and it felt like her soul was suddenly too large for her mortal frame, she seemed to fly apart and then snap back together, with every molecule in her slightly to the right of where it had been before.

**_La la la la la la la la..._**

A joyous, exuberant song bubbled up from all around her, pure bell-like tones resounding from the throat of every shadow, filling her to the brim with jubulation. The song danced inside of her, singing and jangling along every nerve, shivering along her skin and saturating every little crevice of her. There was something wild and magical about it, but at the same time it was every bit a part of her now.

The glimmering snow that had frozen in the air around her when her shadows had come out from within her suddenly started to whirl around her, a song like unborn possibilities laughing and chortling in her ears. She laughed and danced with joy even as she made her way out of the narrow cave entrance and under the moonlit sky with the stars wheeling overhead.

Yuka wasn't sure where the knowledge came from, but she suddenly was able to make an instinctive mental twist, pulling up a strange new power from within her and pushing it outward, fueled by her own inner spiritual power. In response a thousand tiny motes of blue-white light, small as grains of sand, pulled inward. She was surrounded by a second skin of starlight.

**_Run_**.

It wasn't a voice and it wasn;t the goad of fear, it was an unusual knowledge telling her that if she did this then something wonderful would happen. Everything had already been so strange that evening, that Yuka didn't question it. She crouched down, her eyes aiming for the edge of the forest nearby, and pushed off with her legs, concentrating everything she had on making it to her goal, speeding forward and not allowing the earth to claim her. Her focus turned inward and then outward as she passes through some sort of strange threshold, her whole body felt light as thistledown on the wind. The world around her blurred and it felt like she suddenly flew apart into thousands of shards of starlight. Yuka wasn't sure how it happened but an instant later her body seemed to snap back together and she was someplace else, there wasn't even the pulling feeling of loosing momentum she was just suddenly... there.

It felt like a dream, but Yuka figured that since it was her dream, she should enjoy it to the hilt. She pulled in the starry motes of wind-spirits around her and then pushed off the ground. it felt a lot like jumping on a trampoline, the air held her up as she flared out with her own inner fire, willing herself to step up higher. Yuka wind-hopped again and then let herself free-fall back down to the earth, pushing out with another small flare of power a tiny whirlwind kicked up around her pulling on the star-skin that surrounded her and breaking her fall. With another laugh, enjoying the dream, Yuka found another goal and blurred back into wind-step again, a feeling of delighted exuberance taking over her as she flickered in and out of the air in different places, making her way back to Taiki's side.

**I know it seems strange now, but it'll make sense in a little bit. Please tell me what you thought.**


	21. Book I: Path of Sorrows: Chapter 20

It was late morning and she woke up feeling groggy and strangely exhausted. It was late morning to judge by the slant of the sun. Her stomach was growling at her but despite her state of half-asleep, Yuka found herself aware of the world in a way she never quite had been before. The air seemed to shimmer ever so slightly, little sparkles like day stars swirling in a strange half-vision. She could also _feel_ things around her, it was an impalpable sense, a lot like a song played just on the edge of hearing, her new spiritual "ears" could just pick up the notes. She could "feel" every bit of metal in the room around her, could feel its shape and what it's content was, the sharp notes of it almost seemed to ring out in the air around her. The wood of the floor beneath her was a hollow, slightly dead ghost-note, the fibers of the cloth were tiny and high-pitched but distinctive, more clearly she could sense the trees of the forest in the distance bending and swaying in the wind.

:_There's an awful lot of metal so very close to me_,: she thought groggily, trying to bring her mind up to speed.

She blearily looked around her trying to make sense of her senses enough to figure out what was going on. Taiki sat at a nearby table looking worried. There were several armed guards in the room and they were all looking at her. Yuka didn't want to come to any snap judgements, but they seemed a little suspicious of her. She had been disliked in school often enough to be able to immediately tell when there was some sort of new rumor flying around about her. She sighed tiredly, feeling a bit of a headache coming on already.

"Kaname, what's up with the guard?" she asked tiredly as she dragged herself over to the table nearby and helped herself to some breakfast. She was surprised by how ravenous she felt when Yuka was sure she hadn't been doing anything more strenuous than sleeping.

:_But I had such a strange dream last night_...: she thought, remembering it.

"Miss Yuka," Eishou said, entering her chambers without even knocking. She glared at him a little for the familiarity (she didn't really much care for strange men in her presence) and for interrupting her meal.

"You were gone from your bed last night," he said without preamble, looking sharply at her. "Would you care to tell us where you went?"

Yuka yawned sleepily over her food.

"I went to the cave," she mumbled around a mouthful of rice.

"Yuka!" Kaname admonished her. "You should never do such dangerous things alone, _especially_ without telling anyone. You could have gotten hurt and then we wouldn't know where you were."

Her instructors had stressed the exact same thing. Over and over. It seemed a little strange to her now. It had made perfect sense last night but now, in the light of day, she knew perfectly well that it had been extremely foolish. She flushed a little in embarrassment, knowing she had only a weak excuse to offer.

"I wanted to see it again," she explained lamely. "But I knew you'd probably try to stop me so I just went on my own."

Yuka was accustomed to answering only to herself as to her whereabouts. As soon as she'd come of an age to go to high school, her father had picked a school in another district and sent her to live in student housing. The old lady who ran the complex she lived in was supposed to be keeping an eye on her but in truth didn't really bother.

"You were out all night with no-one to vouch for your whereabouts and you _say_ you went to go and explore a cave?" one of the guards said, sounding like he didn't quite believe her.

Yuka didn't like his tone.

"Is that a _problem_?" she challenged. "If you have something you want to say, then say it."

"Look girl, we've struggled through six years of hell with barely any hope that things would get better. There's a madman on the throne, our king can't be found and our kirin disappeared, then all of a sudden _you_ show up. Some strange kaikyaku witch. You don't answer to anyone, you don't follow anyone's orders, you have no loyalty to anyone... you think we're just going to trust you because you say so?"

:_Sheesh, this guy was holding a lot in, wasn't he_?: Yuka thought resentfully.

She was accustomed to being disliked, and she'd developed a thick skin, but having to put up with an attitude from someone she hadn't met, whose name she didn't even _know,_ when she was actually going out of her way to _help_ those people out was really too much. Yuka forced her body to relax and her expression to smooth over. The first thing she had learned in her house was that to display ones emotions was weakness and weakness was not tolerated. Her father was forever saying that to control ones self made it possible to control ones enemy. "The harder something is or the greater effort it takes, the less emotion you should show." that was how a successful person won.

Yuka forced her expression to remain bored and smooth, looking at him casually from out of the corner of her eye, as if he were a particularly annoying insect she was forced to pay attention to because it would not stop buzzing.

"If you're asking me that question seriously," she replied evenly. "Then the answer is yes."

The man scowled at her, temper clearly rising. Yuka's usual desire to goad reactions out of people rose up to the fore of her. It was a terrible habit of hers, but people were so _boring_ otherwise.

"You asked me where I was and I told you," she added. "There's no point in your getting mad about it just because you don't like the answer."

The guard spluttered a bit, but Yuka turned back to her breakfast. She'd just made an enemy. She shrugged, she was used to it. As long as the person was not smart enough to match her, then there was no point in worrying about him.

"I'm for some morning practice Kaname," Yuka said after finishing her breakfast.

The two rose and walked over to the private courtyard behind the rooms that were given to the Tai Taiho.

"You didn't have to make an enemy of that person Yuka," he chided her.

"He wasn't exactly neutral about me before," she said back, trying to sound uncaring. "I hardly think that he's going to want to join hands an sing cumbaya with me just because I ask him to. Besides, if he can't take having his world views challenged a little bit every now and then, then he's too rigid."

Kaname sighed.

"We both know you were only toying with him, Yuka, and that's not good for you. It's a terrible way you have of controlling your environment by manipulating the people around you. I know you think that if you can prove that they don't like you then you can predict which way they'll move and be prepared to counter them, and I also know you goad people to keep them at arms length because you don't want them to hurt you."

Yuka was actually struck dumb for the first time in a long time. As much as he could be a bit of a crybaby at times, there were other times when Kaname was scary perceptive.

"You have a good ability to read people,"Kaname encouraged. "And I'd like to see you start using that talent of yours for good, especially your own good."

She didn't really have anything else she could say to that, so Yuka said nothing. She picked up the two new oak sticks she had chosen for her escrima practice and paused.

:_That's odd_,: she thought, frowning in puzzlement.

The two sticks, which had just felt like ordinary sticks to her the day before, now felt... _alive_ in her hands. They had a strange sort of energy thrumming through them and they literally felt like an extension of her arms. She moved with them, and instead of the movements with the sticks feeling like it was just her, striking with two hard sticks, it felt like it was her spirit essence moving around in the world around her.

She closed her eyes, concentrating on the "sound" she could feel from the sticks, her attitude becoming one of listening and slowly more "sounds" became apparent. She could feel each blade of grass, every flower, every tree in the whole courtyard and she wasn't sure how but she took that same strange ability of listening and pushed it inward, somehow, willing herself to "sound" just the same as the noise of the wood. Something inside of her began to buzz with a strange soft resonance.

"Yuka?!" Kaname shouted suddenly, sounding panicked, it broke her concentration and the feeling of resonating shattered.

"_What_?" she asked, a little irritated at having been interrupted just as it was getting good.

"Y-You disappeared!" he said in amazement.

Yuka looked back at him, nonplussed.

"What do you mean I disappeared? I'm standing right here Kaname."

"Well, yeah, I mean _now_ you are, but a minute ago you weren't. I mean...You were there and then suddenly you were _not_ there. I couldn't see you."

"It must have been a trick of the light?" she hazarded.

"I don't think so," Kaname replied positively. "I was looking right at you and suddenly it was like I couldn't see you anymore. I knew you were there but it was like my eyes slid right past you."

"I'm going to try it again," she said.

Once again she _listened_, and then once again she turned her focus inward, calling up the energy within her that sounded like the wood around her breathing it in with a long deep breath, this time she managed to hold onto it. Pushing it a little further, Yuka expanded her awareness all around her as she expelled her breath. She could feel where every blade of grass, every leaf, every stick was located, knew where it was safe to step and where a noise would give her away. She padded softly over, just _knowing_ somehow, without being sure of how, that Kaname couldn't see her.

"Gotcha!" she called out merrily, dropping her wood-sense and ruffling his hair.

Kaname stared at her, wide eyed.

"I guess it wasn't a dream after all," she murmured to herself.

It had all really happened last night. She wasn't sure exactly what had happened, but she had a few gut feelings about it.

"How did you do that?" he asked, curiosity making him exited.

"I'll tell you if you promise that you won't tell anyone else," Yuka replied.

Kaname gave his word, so Yuka, after listening around for strangers who might be listening in, very quietly told him of the thing that had happened the night before that she thought had been a dream. About the cave full of dancing starlight and the ghost-shadow reflections of herself. Even though Kaname was her best friend, Yuka felt that the conversation she had had with herself was too private to share with anyone. She'd wrapped it up with relating the strange feeling she'd gotten when she'd run back to the fort, the way it had felt like she burst into the wind.

"I'm still not sure what it all means myself just yet," she finished. "But since we don't have anywhere else to go right now, and nothing else to do, I'm sure going to try and figure it out."

Truth to tell, Yuka was pretty excited by the prospect of exploring the new-found power. It felt like for a change she was the heroine of her very own story. She had an ability that no-one else (not even the kirin!) had, and she wanted to know just what she could do. That feeling from the night before, that wanting to be able to stretch her hands out into the world and know just what kind of person she could make herself into, was born again inside her.

"How do we do that?" Kaname wondered. "I still haven't figured out how to regain my proper form as a kirin yet."

Yuka took a long moment to think about it. Generally, the quickest way she learned anything was by simply doing it, but an instinct warned her that using her new abilities could dangerous to learn by trial and error, especially since there was no sensei of shihon or even a sempai to keep her on the right track.

:_Well, I gained these new abilities because I wanted to become more myself_,: she reasoned. :_So it would make sense that the way to learning about them and mastering them would mean learning more and mastering myself first_.:

She related this feeling to Kaname but then added that she was uncertain how in the world anyone might go about doing such a thing. Kaname. surprisingly, had some useful advice.

"I don't know if you're any good at it," Kaname said helpfully. "But a long time ago, i heard Gyousou-sama say that in order to truly learn how to excel in anything, a person had to master themselves first and figure out what it was they really need to know."

"Well how would I do that?" she asked curiously.

"I think that a good first step is meditation," kaname said. "Everyone path might be different, but finding a little more inner peace surely never hurt anyone. You often act like you're at war with the whole world, and sometimes I think it makes you grumpy. Try giving up the fight for a little while and you might be able to see something new. I like the person you are when you're being my friend. If you like I'll meditate right beside you, I think it's high time I talked with my shirei as well."

"I'm not very good at meditation,"Yuka said was pleased that Kaname offered to share and activity with him, but she didn't really want to try meditation because it sounded so boring.

:_Still, I do have to admit that Kaname is right far more often than he is wrong,_: Yuka said internally. :_I should listen to him because he seems like he knows what he's talking about._:

"I'm more of a do-er than a thinker, but in this case, since we have the time and nothing else better to do, I guess it would be wise to be cautious in moving forward until we have a better handle on things."

"Actually, even though I was a kid on Mount Hou, my nature tends toward meditation anyway. I'm a little surprised I didn't think to try it sooner," he replied.

Kaname needed nothing more than to suit action to thought. He immediately settled himself into lotus position and was soon deep in meditation, his posture both rigid and relaxed. Yuka tried not to glare at him in envy.

She folded her body up into lotus position right next to where her friend was already meditating and slowly closed her eyes, focusing on her breathing and trying to relax enough that her thoughts would quiet. As usual, it wasn't easy for her. Her mind kept trying to concentrate on the person who had been rude to her over breakfast, and whether or not he might be a dangerous person to have as an enemy, and from there it wanted to sort out just what he might be planning against her and how many other people he might know or come into contact with that he would speak of his suspicions to. From there it tried to wander to just where this supposed king of Tai might be and how they were supposed to find him much less rescue him, and just what sort of person was he and what was Kaname's enemy like and-

Yuka pulled her runaway-train thoughts up sharply and redoubled her efforts to focus. She forced her mind to clear itself and think of nothing but her breath. In and out, steady, calm... Slowly she felt a strange sort of warmth well up from within her, spreading out gently and making her feel strangely relaxed with a sort of dreamish wakefulness.


	22. Book I: Path of Sorrows: Chapter 21

The first sensation Yuka became aware of was a strange sort of dizzy, floating feeling, like that feeling of being right on the edge between dreaming and waking, but instead of fading as she was pulled in one direction or the other, the feeling remained.

:_Am I… asleep? Is this a dream? Or a vision?_: she wondered to herself.

The place that surrounded her was strange in an undefinable sort of way. It looked like the place where she'd grown up. Her childhood room looked almost exactly as she remembered it, with everything arrayed as neatly as a showcase room (her father despised messiness).

:_But it's not quite right…_: Yuka thought in mystification as she looked around her.

There were little things that were off about it, the coverlet that had been chosen for her to decorate her bed had the tiny, ragged security blanket her father had ordered destroyed long ago. The wall where there should have been her display case of trophies and medals for the violin competitions she'd won over the years held other objects instead. Yuka recognized the titles of some of her favorite books, her violin was there, as were the scimitars that the king of Kou had given her to learn with along with a few other items that were important to her for sentimental reasons but had been lost over time.

She was startled by a sudden sound off to her right. Yuka looked over and straightened from her instinctive crouch in surprise for in through her bedroom door walked… herself.

"Don't be so surprised," her doppelganger said into Yuka's shocked silence. "You came here looking for answers, and it's about time you started looking into your own self for what you seek."

"For what I seek?" Yuka asked, forced by confusion to parrot of the last thing she'd heard.

Yuka took hold of herself and forced herself to shake off the disorientation she felt and focus on the matter at hand. "You mean that weird feeling I woke up with this morning. Does it have to do with what happened last night? I mean, with the glowing ghosts and the underground magic spring?"

"Yes, part of your spirit resonated with the innate, unborn, raw potential magic of this place. The magic that resonated with you merged with the part of your spirit it was akin to. The elements that the magic that merged with you will respond to your will-"

"So that means I can control magic?" Yuka said brightly, already thinking of all the neat things she'd be able to do with power like that.

"It doesn't _quite_ work that way," her Self said sharply, fixing her with a gimlet stare much like a teacher who had a very promising but troublesome student who required careful watching.

"But you just said that the magic will respond to my will," Yuka pointed out, feeling disappointed.

"And you're thinking about this the wrong way. You must remember why you are here in the first place. Remember what happened the last time you went about thoughtlessly chasing power for its own sake."

Yuka paused. She remembered quite well what had happened the last time she had thought it would be a great idea to pursue ambition; she'd wound up blinding herself to the truth on many levels and had almost hurt a friend.

"You said yourself that the only way to master your new ability is to become master of yourself. That's what you're here for after all," her mirror image explained in a matter-of-fact manner to her. "This new power isn't a mere tool, like a new car or a sword, it's not something that can just be handed to you and used."

"Why is that?" Yuka wondered, caught off guard by the information.

She had always sort of thought power was that way, either one had it or one did not; and if one did not, then like anything worth having, one strove and fought until it was attained.

"_Really_! Don't you ever learn _anything_?" her Self said in exasperation, shaking her head a bit at Yuka's apparent density. "It is because this power isn't a tool or an object; it comes partly from within _you_. The only way you will be able to use it, let alone master it, is by learning the You within and mastering yourself first."

"Oh," Yuka said, sort of becoming a little irked by her doppleganger's put-upon tone.

:_Do I really sound like that all the time?_: Yuka wondered to herself. :_No wonder people don't like me_.:

"But I'm not like Youko," Yuka said flatly. "I don't give in to everyone else around me."

"Do you not?" her Self replied, but the tone had the feeling of a teacher who was testing her new student to see how much background knowledge she already possessed. "What about king Kou?"

"He offered me something I wanted in exchange for my service to him," Yuka replied promptly.

"And Ikuya Asano? Would you not have done what he asked of you if he had promised to love only you instead?"

Yuka paused again, brought up a bit short.

:_Would I have?_: she wondered to herself. After a long moment to think about it Yuka had to decide that it depended on what he might have asked of her.

"What about your _father_?" the ghost pressed.

Yuka felt a pang at the sensitive subject. Unlike Kou-Ou, Yuka was certain that her father would never ask anything truly _wrong_ of her. He just asked her to be the best, it was such a small thing really. But lately there had been a small but growing part of her that had begun to question herself and her never-ending drive to win his approval, that voice whispered that she was ignoring the person she was inside in hopes of winning praise and attention from him.

"Father always says that no-one is born into this world entitled to anything," yuka replied, the answer that came to her lips sounded an awful lot like what she told herself in order to do what it took to achieve every goal her father set for her. "It's only those who prove themselves worthy—"

"Worthy?" her Self asked sharply. "And who decides whether you are worthy or not?"

Yuka remained silent for a very long moment as a slow, creeping comprehension began to dawn on her, and she started to grasp what the doppelganger was leading up to.

"You begin to see, I notice. Good. It's time for your journey to begin."

Yuka's heart sank. She had started this thinking that it would be easy, a few hours of meditation and she'd come out of it with awesome super-powers. The way that her Self had put it made it sound like she was in this one for the long haul.

:_It can't be helped I guess, if there were such a thing as a quick fix, we'd all be living Buddha statues_.:

"Where are we going?" she asked as her doppelganger led her toward the door to what in her own room was the hallway.

"I can only lead you to the door, you are the one who must open it and walk through."

"That didn't sound portentous_ at all_," Yuka muttered.

She'd never suspected herself of having such a flair for the dramatic. Yuka paused at the sight of her innocuous looking wooden door, uncertain and a little afraid of what she might find on the other side, but… she'd never get anywhere if she didn't start walking. She turned the door handle and pulled, walking through the threshold.

Her stomach suddenly dropped, her heart leaped into her throat, and she was seized by a full-body panic as her next step took her off the edge of the world. The sourceless wind rushed around her and she screamed as started to fall.

Yuka looked down, afraid that she was going to be met with the sight of the ground rushing up to meet her at bone-shattering speeds, but she'd always been the sort of person who felt it was better to know than to not know. The sight that filled her eyes was not what she was expecting however. At first glance, it looked like she was descending right into the eye of a meishouku. Rings and ribbons of light and what seemed to be water wound around each other in many directions all at once but a moment later her depth perception kicked in and she realized that the eye of the maelstrom was comprised of many different levels. It was shortly after she realized this that her "body" crashed through the first of them. The whole world turned on its side and then tilted upside down in a strange rush, then all was still.

"Where am I?" Yuka wondered, not for the first time.

The "ground" she stood on looked like water, it rippled at the points where her feet stood on it but was firm in a vaguely mat-like way. Looking around her didn't yield any further insights as to her location either. She was surrounded on all sides by what looked like a great a great many ribbons of softly glowing light or mist that moved like water all around her in constantly flowing patterns. When she looked up into the "sky" she saw ribbons of multicolored colors flowing and weaving around themselves, centering in on round circling focus points that spun like wheels in the sky made of starfire.

:_That's strange, the light and the colors seems dim somehow_,: Yuka thought to herself, not knowing exactly why she should think this was so, but feeling it was so all the same. :_And it feels like they should be moving more quickly and smoothly, but it's like they are all being held back or blocked somehow, like water trying to trickle around an obstruction_.:

Yuka looked down at herself to notice that a part of her appeared to be glowing! A point on her body three finger-widths below her navel held what looked like a wheel made of light flowing in strange and subtle patterns like water moving in a spiral. The wheel in her Dan'tien pulsed once brightly then expanded outwards creating a gate. Through this gate a figure approached, it was another twin of herself! However this one was far less substantial, more of an outline drawn in colors of red and orange, like an ember brought to life.

"I hate feeling like I'm left out of the loop in my own personal development. What in the world is going on?!" Yuyka demanded of her doppelganger in irritation.

"You have found the very inside of you, this place you see surround you is a representation of what you might call the meridians that your chi flows through, and the places where they cycle through, called Fuchi."

Fuchi meant "deep pool" in her native tongue.

"There are four fuchi, Earth…"

The wheel-like glow brightened a bit around the point just below her navel, spinning silently in place.

"Then water…"

And another spot lit up, looking like a wheel made of complex interwoven lines of light colored a brilliant blue-green, that also turned slowly.

"Then air…"

Another wheel appeared that she more sensed than saw, placed at her throat, spinning slowly in place.

"And fire."

She could feel the wheel-like tattoo of light form on her forehead and spin there softly for a very long moment. Her doppelganger looked back over at her, smiling a very secret sort of smile, it was a smile filled with all the feminine mysteries, full of yin, full of secrets and manipulations and female power. And her eyes! Her eyes were dark and ancient, full of hidden knowledge and terrible beauty. Yuka knew something then and there on a bone-deep level.

:_She's not me at all_!: Yuka realized. :_Or if she is, it's only in the sense that part of every person contains something **Other** in them. She's… she's ancient and powerful_.:

With that realization came another, swift on its heels. If that powerful being was here to instruct and guide her in order for Yuka to attain enough spiritual power to control the reishin bonded or manifested within her, then that Being had some sort of _plan_ in mind for her. She was, in essence, going to be used again. Just like with King Kou.

:_But what would something as powerful as she is want with someone like me?_: Yuka wondered to herself.

Yuka already knew that as far as worthiness of soul went, for all of her stubbornness she lacked the strength of character to be considered worthy of greatness. She was a fighter, it was true, but she didn't have the kind of moral rectitude that a hero would have to possess, and heaven knew she wasn't about reaching out into the world around her to change things and make them better. All she had was her stubbornness, the quality of her soul that made it so that once her feet were set firmly on the path, she never wavered, no matter how bad things got.

:_And look where that landed me_,: Yuka reminded herself. :_I couldn't even listen to good advice when it was all but shouted in my face!_:

So being stubborn when it stemmed from fear was harmful.

"My my," the doppelganger said, looking amused in a very feminine sort of way, like a cat that had found a mouse that was able to be far more interesting than it had originally thought it would be.

"You are a _quick_ little mortal child. So wary and so perceptive… I wonder that Water does not have a stronger hold on you. But sometimes those who are more perceptive of people run to the _opposite_ direction," the not-Yuka said, as if musing aloud. "A person with such perception might close themselves off from others out of sheer self-protection, rather than reach out to them. It is easier to maintain one's sense of Self, and one's sanity that way, rather than run the risk of suborning one's needs to those around them."

"Um, right. I have no idea what you just said," yuka said, feeling suspicious. "Let's just put it out there, whoever or whatever you are. Why are you helping me? I don't even belong in this world, and the only reason I'm here it to help Kaname."

"You might have noticed," the spirit, or whatever she was, smiled that mysterious feminine smile again, but answered all the same. "Mortal Child, that this world is run by laws that the Emperor of Heaven has put into place. But like any law, there are ways of getting around them. My dear Tentei, while a perceptive man, tends to react rather than prevent. There is a significant threat to Him, whether He knows it or not, and if one should wait until that threat has had time to bring its full plans to fruition without putting in place a way to disrupt those plans, the results could be disastrous."

"I'm a kaikyaku," Yuka reminded her again.

"You are indeed," the spirit replied. "Tentei is part of every single piece of this world in one way or another. Every life that breathes on this world is one that He has granted his permission to exist. This is His way of ensuring that everything in this world remains bound by His law."

"Control freak," Yuka muttered.

"Well… _yes_," the woman said with some small amusement. "A kaikyaku, however is outside of His jurisdiction."

"Ah!" Yuka said, grasping quickly what the spirit was getting at. "I'm a loophole."

"Just so," the woman-spirit nodded. "I aid you because placing you on the board with enough power to act and to counteract may prevent the disaster I foresee if nothing is done."

"What kind of disaster?" yuka asked, feeling a little fission of concern. "Will Kaname be hurt?"

"I cannot say what will happen," the spirit replied. "I am already acting outside of my own authority, but… I am Woman, I am certain I will be forgiven my transgressions in time."

Yuka thought she sounded rather like a mischievous wife with a forebearing husband, who was up to dangerous but well-meant mischief and knew that her dear husband could not stay mad at her for long. Yuka found herself wanting to help the Lady in her little game. After all, rules were all perfectly fine and great, but sometimes they got in the way of doing the sensible thing.

"Ah, you agree that it must be done then," the lady-spirit said.

"If it's to keep Kaname safe, I'll do whatever it takes," Yuka said.

"It will not be easy, child."

"In my experience nothing worth having is easy. It's usually when you do things the easy way that you land your butt in trouble."

After all, Yuka _could_ have put in the effort to learn the language manually and be able to communicate, but she'd chosen instead to depend on Kou-ou and the hinma that his Kirin had granted her. She'd taken the easy path and look where it had taken her.

"I'm not afraid to face difficulty," Yuka added. "I want to be able to see my face in a mirror in the morning without being plagued by self-doubt and inadequacy."

"Then your journey has already begun," she said, then gestured all around her. "The Earth Fuchi is the very first and basic of all of them. It is the root of all things and the foundation upon which all rests. As such it is concerned most with basic needs; not only survival, but ones perception of self-worth as well. It is blocked by fear and shame. In order to win through, you must face that which you fear, that which shames you and makes you doubt your own self-worth.

"It figures that they'd give me the hard ones first," Yuka muttered.

With that, the strange spiraling mist-world around her faded and the ordeal began.


	23. Book I: Path of Sorrows: Chapter 22

When she opened her eyes, Yuka found herself in a familiar place. She was back home, it was in the main room of the house she'd mostly grown up in, her father was sitting at a desk nearby reading over some papers. She was about to go and greet him when suddenly a younger version of herself, from around the age five, ran by. She was holding up a paper drawing she had made in class with a big, red 97% on the top of it proudly.

:_I remember this_,: Yuka thought. :_I had gotten the highest grade in class_…:

She'd been so excited all day because she had heard all of her other classmates brag about how their parents always praised them and showed off their work when they made such high marks. She had thought that she would at last get him to smile at her and tell her she'd done well.

Irritated at being interrupted, her father glared down at her younger self with a frown, then reprimanded her about the missing three points and how she should strive to improve herself and do better on the next one. He would reward her if she got perfect scores, but anything less than that wasn't deserving of his notice, and she should never bring such inferior work before him again.

It had always been like that with him, if it wasn't perfect, if _she_ wasn't perfect, he wasn't interested. Even when she was perfect he was notedly stinting in his praise, mostly he acted as though she had done nothing more than live up to his expectations of her, and at that only just barely.

:_But really, he's all I have in the world_…: Yuka thought.

Her mom had left when Yuka was too young to even remember what she looked like and she found out later that the man she called father wasn't actually related to her by blood. She was an illegitimate child that her father had been more or less tricked into taking care of.

:_I suppose it's sort of to be expected that he'd have some resentment for having to take in a child that isn't his_…:

Yuka couldn't help but feel more and more dubious about that particular sentiment the older she got. As a child she'd just sort of accepted the idea because she hadn't had any other way to make sense of the world she was given. Her father didn't like her because she wasn't his, but if she lived up to expectations he'd like her eventually had been her conclusion.

:_I've spent so much time and effort into becoming what he wants me to be_,: Yuka thought a bit sadly.

She'd spent hours practicing the violin, until her fingers bled sometimes, so that she could bring home prizes and take first place and it wasn't because she wanted to play or even really liked the instrument that much, but because he wanted it from her. Not to mention the hours upon hours of studying she'd done to bring home the grades and class ranking he'd required of her.

:_But I've never really stopped to ask myself 'what is it I want to be?' Who am I and what do I want, I am slowly coming to see, aren't the sorts of questions that can be answered by "father wants this" or "father said that"_.:

It was no wonder she looked back at a scowling face every time she looked in the mirror and so very rarely smiled, how could anyone be expected to smile if they were never comfortable inside of their own skin! Before every action she took, every decision she made the voice of her father whispered to her what he expected of her, haunting her and driving her toward the destiny he wanted. She never felt quite easy inside of herself for echoing in the hollow inside of her shell was his voice.

Intellectually she knew she was almost an adult and so should be breaking away and finding her own way, making her own conclusions, but that was something that was far easier thought of than done.

:_I made the choice to come back and help Kaname, so I think that's a definitely a start and a big step in the right direction_,: yuka encouraged herself.

Even now she wasn't entirely certain what had prompted her to put so much on the line to help out someone she hadn't known for very long at all. She had originally sought him out out of simple curiousity, the longing for a comrade, someone who had been through the same things she had and whom she could talk to without someone thinking her crazy. But her conversation with him painting alone in the moonlight hadn't quite been what she had imagined it would be at all.

:_He was so sad, so alone_.:

For once Yuka felt her heart going out to someone who might just be in a more pitiable position than her own. His eyes were so sad and so empty, and when she felt the cries of his Shirei suffering in his shadow, Yuka knew that this had to be the missing Taiki she had heard stories of during her time in En. Kaname himself was so kind to her despite his own private suffering and emptiness that Yuka had felt truly humbled to be his friend. At that time she wanted more than anything to make everything all better for him. It wasn't just about her anymore, she wanted to help Kaname for no other reason than that he was a good friend to her and his sorrow made her sad as well. She'd never had a real friend before…

_:And most of that is my own fault, I think_…: Yuka realized with some chagrin mixed with guilt.

Not everyone had picked on her as the odd person out, Youko had tried to make overtures… sort of. Sadly, they were overtures that were more along the lines of 'you should really stop closing yourself off with your books and play nicely with the other children' in other words, to Yuka she was just saying' fit in, _conform_, be a good little child,' and Yuka Sugimoto wasn't interested in taking part of the group hypocrisy that everyone bowed their heads to just to get people to like her. But at the same time she'd resented and been jealous of those who did fit and excluded her. That had included Youko. As much as she'd looked at her former classmate with distain for always going along with the group, she'd been just that much more jealous of her because she was accepted and liked by everyone else in their class.

:_So I suppose I had individualism, but it wasn't a healthy sort. I spent so much time being mad at the world_…:

That anger and jealousy had just twisted up inside of her and fed on itself.

:_I guess it's not any wonder that I was such an easy target to fall prey to the dark side_.:

"Well, you are rather stubborn and plenty feisty," a voice behind her said.

Yuka whirled to face the speaker, surprised to hear any voice but her own in this place. She suddenly found herself in a grove of trees, surrounded but the gentle song of the wind through the leaves. The trees trunks and branches were all grown together and hidden in various nooks and branches were books enough to fill a library. Hanging from the tree branches were hundreds of mirrors in all different shapes and sizes, interspersed btween them were swords suspended from chains like pendulums. A feeling of calm, peaceful serenity pressed in on her.

The speaker was another image of herself. This one was clad in a short-kimono and hakama of green and brown that looked as though it had simply pulled out a piece of the forest to wear, resting across "her" back was a bow and a quiver of arrows. At her side was another Yuka-clone, this one dressed head to toe in shining silver armor with twin scimitars belted to her hips, like something out of one of her fantasy stories. Where the tree-spirit doppelganger had a gentle scholarly aura about her, the metal spirit was more what Yuka was accustomed to looking like; direct, slightly cynical, and ready for a fight.

"All of that energy had to go somewhere," the sword-weilderYuka said bluntly.

"And who wouldn't have believed such a beautiful creature as the Kou kirin when she appeared, speaking of your hearts desire?" tree-spirit Yuka added gently.

"A place to belong," Yuka murmured sadly. "A place to call home. If I weren't so jealous of everyone around me for having that simple comfort I wouldn't be so sullen and angry and unhappy all the time. I keep reaching for it, but it always seems to elude me."

"But haven't you already realized it for yourself? Isn't that why you're here?" the ghosts of her chorused enigmatically.

The stump of a nearby tree held a shining silver mirror in the hollow of it with a frame of vines holding it up, the surface which rippled over like water for a moment. The image of herself when she'd been exiled into the school in En appeared. A teacher who was a kaikyaku had reached out to her, trying to get her to interact with others around her, to accept that she was a kaikyaku and it was not her place to belong. He'd given her good advice, and shown her kindness and patience… in payment she'd stabbed him in the thigh during a moment of panic. She hadn't wanted to hear his words.

:_Admittedly, it probably wasn't my finest hour_,: Yuka acknowledged, upon thinking back of the mess that that whole debacle had been.

:_I was so wrapped up in fear and anger and confusion_,: Yuka remembered. :_I couldn't even hear good advice when it was given to me. I was so blind and foolish, all I could think about was how I'd failed to do what Kou-ou asked and was being punished for it, and how much I wanted to serve the king of Kou and receive the destiny he promised me. More than that I was afraid that if I didn't do exactly as he told me to, I'd be cast off again, and I think I feared that rejection more than anything else_.:

"Oh, we are indeed a foolish child," the tree-spirit-Yuka agreed, with a small inscrutable smile. "But a child still."

"You have grown beyond your past, as we knew you would," sword-Yuka said staunchly.

"I can't have grown _that_ much," Yuka grumbled, looking down into the pool. "I'm still afraid. And I'm still confused sometimes. I'm not always sure what I want. And I'm still stubborn and sometimes blind."

"All of these things yes," tree-spirit-Yuka agreed. "But despite this we can say with absolute certainty that you've never once given up. Stubborn as an oak that stands against the storm, roots firmly in the earth, strong enough for others to shelter beneath its branches. But even the greatest of oaks had to start from a seedling. Your soil hasn't been the best, but you have plenty of sunlight and the potential to grow strong and tall."

"There's just one problem with your analogy,"Yuka felt obliged to argue. "An oak tree never has to make choices or live with the consequences of them. It just grows because that's what it is. So many of the choices I've made have been the wrong ones, and I think it's because I've been so wrapped up in fear and anger and jealousy that I completely miss the point."

"Maybe you're blind and foolish, but you're still fighting," the sword-wielder said. "Sometimes claiming yourself is an all-out war. If you don't conquer yourself you have to go down bloody and still swinging."

"I tried that strategy once," Yuka replied. "Look where it led me."

The sword-wielder took a deep breath; sighing and rolling her eyes in that trademark look Yuka gave others when they were being incredibly, unbelievably dense.

"Who decided on your goal?" the sword-yuka gritted with belabored patience.

"OH!" Yuka exclaimed, suddenly at last understanding what her doppelganger was trying to get at.

"And why did you make your decision?" Tree-Yuka added, supportively.

"I was so afraid," Yuka murmured. "I felt alone and powerless. It felt like even my friends had turned against me and part of me had always expected that they would, deep down. I didn't have any faith in them because I couldn't understand their hearts and I didn't think they really liked me."

The world that the king of Kou had spun for her, where she could have all the power she wanted, all she had to do was seize it, and be willing to serve, was more what she was accustomed to. It was the sort of world her father would have handed to her.

"I wanted power and strength, but I didn't even think about the responsibility that came from wielding it. I was so anxious to point out to Youko how she was so unworthy of it, and prove that I was better than her, that I actually made myself worse. I didn't care about anyone else. All that mattered was that I was the best, but underneath it all I was terrified every moment. I was so afraid that if I wasn't good enough that the power and strength that had been bestowed on me would be taken away. Then when it was, the only thing I could think of was how to get it back."

Suddenly the silver mirror framed by entwined vines glowed green and black smoke over the surface and when the image cleared she saw herself staring back at her. She was wearing her school uniform and her hair was styled just the same as it had been when she'd bowed her head to the king of Kou. However, this doppelganger version of herself was hung on all sides with heavy chains. Instinctively Yuka knew the names and nature of each chain; fear, anger, hurt, betrayal, jealousy, her own willingness to sacrifice her inner light for wrongful gain, desire for empty power all of it was there but the shadow-yuka didn't look at all upset by all of the chains shackled around her. Some of them, instead of dragging the girl down actually appeared to be holding her up, like strings on a marionette.

"What's wrong with you?" not-Yuka asked scornfully.

"I'd ask you the same question," she replied to herself. "Don't all those chains bother you? I thought you prided yourself on being so independent, you're even worse than that crybaby Youko. Look at you just doing whatever Kou-ou and father ask of you."

"So what?" she demanded. "At least they can give me all I've ever wanted. You should think more carefully about what you're doing. That guy who calls himself your friend can't even move on his own without your help. He's just weighing you down. I'm not the one who's chained up and tied down, you are! Frienship, trust? Ha! Weakness, you mean! I have real strength, real power, I don't need anyone!"

"Do you even hear yourself?" Yuka demanded. "Real strength, real power? You can't even stand up on your own! Look at these chains, you're just a puppet! Worse than that, a puppet has no mind of its own, you can choose to walk away… but you stay like that, relying on false strength, with no real reason to fight; nothing of your own to stand on, no-one to protect."

A sword appeared in the marrionette's hand and she leaped at Yuka, black-red energy, sullen and angry swirled around her like an anti-light. The chains around her fueled the not-Yuka's rage. Instinctively, Yuka held up a hand to block her downswing and she braced herself for the feel of a sword cutting into her flesh but she wasn't going to give ground to that creature. Unexpectedly a sword materialized in her hand, glowing with the healthy energy of her life-force. She blocked the sword of darkness and pushed back.

"I don't see why you're making such a big deal about it," not-yuka muttered sullenly. "It's not like they ask for much, really."

As a protest it was a weak one, and Yuka could sense the underlying uncertainty in the poor thing's voice as she spoke it; like the girl was trying more to convince herself of her words than anyone else.

"Just blind obedience, and unquestioning loyalty," Yuka sneered back at the pitiable creature. "Ensnaring you with empty promises, demanding that you give up your own inner voice and subsume your will to theirs, and they offer you what in return? Power? A fine thing, but it won't fill that hole inside you. In the end, it just makes you emptier."

Not-Yuka charged again at her, and Yuka blocked. Little by little Yuka was forced back, step by step. She had only the strength in her arms to rely on and her hands grew numb, her arms ached and her body tired, unaccustomed to such exertion. The doppelganger on the other hand moved tirelessly, the chains that manipulated her movements infusing her with strength, it was a false power, but there in that world it was as powerful as anything else.

Yuka's eyes narrowed, a thought occurring to her. The next time the not-Yuka charged Yuka stepped to the side and swiped her sword at one of the chains, the chain for false idols and shattered it hold on her. The doppelganger screamed in rage with an underlying hint of fear, meanwhile Yuka suddenly felt much stronger than she had a minute ago. The instant she destroyed the chain on the other yuka, a chain of her own appeared on her own body… or rather, it was not a chain but looked rather more like a life-rope made from multi-colored silken light. She could sense that this chain led back to the newly formed bond she'd made with Kaname, one on which she'd sworn she'd look out for him simply because he was her friend and she didn't want him to be sad anymore. Yuka attacked the chains on her other self, determined to free her and as she did, more bonds gathered on Yuka's body, but rather than either weighing her down or holding her back, manipulating her movements, they felt more like a safety net, supportive without restricting her.

"Why are you doing this?!" the doppelganger demanded of her.

"Because whether you know it or not, this is what you, _we_, need," Yuka answered succinctly. "Break apart the world that has been handed to us, and find our own way without relying on false strength!"

She shattered the chains that bound her former self and in doing so found the strength to do something she hadn't thought she'd have to, she forgave the girl her childish naiveté and her confusion, and her blindness and her fear. Slowly she released the girl from her own insecurities and in doing so recognized that Yuka had still been bound by them as much as her past self had.

"Stop!" the doppelganger cried as Yuka prepared to take a swing at the last chain, the chain called fear. "Think about what you're doing! You _need_ those! How will we know the shape of the world, how will we ever have a place to belong if its not given to us? How can we possibly possess power if no-one bestows it on us?"

Panting, Yuka pulled herself up tall and, hefting the sword gave one last confident swing, not just breaking the chain but obliterating it completely.

"We'll make our own place," Yuka replied confidently. "If no-one wants to make room for us, we'll carve it out. As for power, having it to use is not as important as why you use it and how. Right now, someone needs my help so I'm going to do my very best for him. Maybe I'm still young and ignorant, but I'm not afraid to take up the fight."

"He's just going to turn on you like everyone else," not-Yuka muttered sullenly.

"You need to have a little more faith," Yuka said. "But I understand why you don't… poor thing, you've been locked up inside, down in this place for so long. It's no wonder you can't tell up from down. Come on then."

She took her shadow-self's hand in her own like an older sibling leading her younger sibling out of the basement. The mirror-portal glowed brightly before them and without hesitation she crossed over the threshold pulling her sorry former self along behind her. They emerged into the mirror-glen, the two Yuka-spirits waiting for them.

"You've had a hard road," tree-Yuka said, stepping up to the poor abused girl who was clearly afraid and trying not to show it. "And it probably won't get much easier, but from now on, at least it'll be your road."

With that the tree-girl faded around the edges and merged with the not-Yuka. The forest around them faded and in its place Yuka could see lines done in intricate knotworks of misty, glowing fire. Those lines which had been dim and flowing sluggishly, like a canal that was clogged with muck, flared up a bit and started moving more freely. Yuka herself abruptly felt a strange sort of energy well up from within her.

"You've let your fear goad you and your insecurieties bind you," the sword Yuka said, stepping forward. "But let it not be said you've ever given up the fight until the very last. Don't let your resolve become mere stubbornness again and your courage will never fail you."

That spirit too, merged with what had once been the shadow of Yuka and what had once been a shaded glen dissolved into a strange swirling pool. Yuka stood upon its surface as easily as though she were standing on nothing more than a highly polished floor. All around her the "walls" of her inner self were comprised of brightly glowing knotworks of mist-fire light. They no longer looked so weak and sickly, but Yuka knew instinctively that, though she had defeated and resolved all the problems that blocked up one of her fuchi, she was far from mastering herself.

"But you have enough for now," a voice said.

Yuka looked to the side to see another version of herself, but that version of her looked less and less like her every time she looked over at her. Yuka still wasn't sure what that spirit was, or why it had taken such an interest in her.

"Be careful in how much and how often you weild the reishin child," the spirit or goddess or sage or whatever she was, cautioned her. "Especially at first. You have more spiritual energy, and that will make your ability to weild reishin more effective and powerful, but take care that you do not overreach yourself for you may inadvertently do yourself very great harm."

"How powerful am I?" yuka asked directly. "Will I be powerful enough to protect Kaname? Strong enough to find his king? Strong enough to defeat his enemies?"

"Your power is sufficient. And in time, with greater knowledge and exercise you will have quite the weapon in your quiver."

"I think you mean to say that _you_ will have quite the weapon in your quiver," Yuka replied bluntly. "I'm only here for Kaname. If that means becoming a weapon, I'm not afraid of that, but mark me, I'll decide myself where I will fly. I'm not an arrow or a sword, and I've had more than enough of being an unthinking tool. I'll put my trust in him and in myself."

The powerful being gave Yuka a long assessing look and after a silence said

"And that is precisely why you are now worthy of it. Fight well and become a sword that protects."

With that, Yuka abruptly found herself flung out of her inner self and back into her body. It was almost a rude shock, like being splashed with cold water. Kaname was waiting nearby, watching her with every evidence of fascination.

"Hey there," he said. "Gouran and Sanshi said you could be scary one day."

"They're probably right," Yuka acknowledged dryly. "But I don't think it'll come to that. Let's sneak out, I want to talk with you about something."

"I don't think that Eishou-dono and the others would like that very much Yuka, I'm pretty sure they get a little nervous when I go out without a guard."

"A frog in the well won't know the ocean," Yuka replied. "You'll never grow unless you start doing things on your own and making up your own mind about things sometimes. I mean, I know you and your brothers and sisters are all supposed to "receive the will of heaven" and stuff, but think about it, you're going to be expected to advise a king… you can't give good advice if you don't know enough to speak up."

"I guess that makes sense."

"Besides, these four walls are making me stir-crazy and I need _out_."

"Oh, _alright_, you little tyrant," Kaname said with a small smile. "It's a good thing you're a kaikyaku for certain, and can never be chosen by a kirin, you'd probably try to take over the world!"

"Hmmmm," Yuka said with a mischievous smile, as though she were pretending to think it over carefully. "Yuka, Queen of the World… kinda has a nice ring to it, doncha think?"

"Oh get out of here you little blasphemer!" Kaname joined her in laughter.

It felt good to laugh and release the tension of all that soul-searching. She had the feeling Kaname was relieved too, knowing she was okay and that for now, things were going to be alright.


	24. Book I: Path of Sorrows: Chapter 23

After dinner they bathed separately and then went to bed, ostensibly... in reality, Yuka was just waiting for the time when the guards became easy enough to relax their vigilance. She very subtly and very quietly shook Kaname awake when she deemed it was safe enough and signaled him to keep quiet. He didn't quite roll his eyes at her but it was kind of clear that he wanted to. Still, he did go along gamely enough when she smiled and pointed toward the wooden screen door that led out to his private courtyard.

Yuka closed her eyes and searched within herself, searching for that feeling within her that was scented of a rain-soaked forest. When she "felt' it she _pushed_ at it, making it swell up within her. Then, listening to the sound and feeling the feel of the wood around her, she used the power within her to resonate with the voices of the wood, blending herself into them so that she was indistinguishable from the rest, then she pushed that resonance outward just a little bit to envelope Kaname as well. The two of them walked past the two somewhat sleepy guards posted at the walls of the back garden without a whisper of sound or even the slightest hint of their being noticed. She boosted him up over the wall and he scrambled over and dropped down to the other side with a slight noise that made her freeze for a moment to see if the guards took notice. They didn't, so Yuka pulled her concentration in again, this time on her air reishin and "wind-hopped" up over the wall, vaulting with supernatural ease over the top and landing lightly on the other side like a leaf drifting down to the forest floor. The two of them made thier way out to the open area they had found earlier to relax in.

The open round meadow was bathed in the silver-white glow of the moon, its diamond-light lambency painting the world in sharply contrasting shadows and brightness. The slight breeze ruffled the long grasses in the field as Yuka perched herself on a rock and Kaname stood in front of it.

"Hey! What are you doing?!" Yuka cried, aghast in shocked modesty as Kaname suddenly started to strip down to his skin.

"If I transform when I'm wearing clothes, they get all ripped up," he replied with perfect equanimity. "The first time I transformed, Gyousou-sama had to loan me his cloak to cover up with."

"Oh..." Yuka said.

kaname stood for a long moment with his eyes closed, then there came a rush of sourceless wind and Yuka's eyes slid automatically to the side as if there were no way to be able to look directly at that particular spot at that time. When she flicked her eyes back, there stood before her a most beautiful creature. He was slightly smaller than a full-sized horse, but larger than a deer, his mane was pale moonglow with sparks coming off from it like flickering embers from a fire stirred by the wind and the rest of his coat was the shiney grey-black of hemetite, his hooves shone silver. Sadly her seemed to be missing one of the kirin's most important features, for in the place where his horn should have crowned his forehead, there was nothing but a small, broken nub. Yuka had seen enough kirin's to know what the horn should have looked like; more like a deer-antler than the perfectly straight spiral spoken of in most myths about unicorns, a beacon-like peice of magic made manifest that shone with a magical gold-white luminance like solid sunligt, instead all that was there was a stub that gleamed weakly with a sickly-pale glow. Still, for all of his missing horn, there was no denying that he was still a majestic form.

"So beautiful," Yuka breathed, happy and a little awed at the sight.

She had always been a big fan of fantasy stories even since she'd been a little girl, so having an actual creature from out of myth and legend standing right before her made her happy in a lot of ways. She loved him when he was simply her friend Kaname, tucking the thought that he was not human at all in the back of her mind and simply treating him like a friend, but when he wore his other form she was twice as happy and twice as honored to call him her friend.

Kaname reared up on his hind legs, horn-nub pointing straight into the air and then whirled to dash off to one end of the field, leaping from rock to rock, sparks of magic floating off from him in the wind of his passage, clearly hitting his stride and truly reveling in all that he was for the first time in a very, very long time. Yuka watched on, smiling in delight as he strode powerfully up into the air then hit the ground magnificently, looking like a colt cavorting about in a field playfully. He looked beautiful in the moonlight and Yuka thought that she could be joyful for the rest of her life just watching him be so free. After what probably felt like a lot longer than it was, Kaname returned to where Yuka waited with his clothes, his sides heaving and glistening with sweat. He casually turned back into the form of a nude young man and pulled on his light sleeping yukata, more out of consideration for his friend's lady-like modesty than that he felt the need to cover. They sat in companionable silence for a while, enjoying the feel of the cooling night air while Kaname caught his breath and allowed his body to cool down.

"So, what did you learn about those... that... what do you call it anyway? Are they shirei, like what I have? But I thought only kirin could...?"

"No," Yuka said, quirking her head to one side, trying to think of a way to explain it to him. "They're not the same thing at all, not really. You told me that shirei are youma that a kirin tames by a special spell and their own will and nature. These... um... I guess the closest thing you could call would be like an elemental or a nature spirit or something like that, anyway, they're closer in nature to a hinma I think, except that hinma have a semi-solid form as well as a spirit form. I'm not explaining it very well."

Yuka thought for a moment and then said

"You know when we asked Eishou about how plants are brought to life in the spring inside a seed-pod despite growing from a riboku and he told us about the Spreading?"

"Yes," Kaname replied.

"Well consider this, everything in this world has a spirit-form inside it, even the winds," Yuka said.

The kirin nodded, knowing intrinsically that this was true.

"They are called reishin," he informed her.

"Ah! well think of it like this, if every seed and stone has a reishin too, then when their life is created on the branch of a riboku tree that spirit has to get into it somehow. I think that's what the glowing pool in the cave underneath the riboku tree was, it was a mass of raw spiritual energy, waiting for the physical forms of the bodies it would inhabit to manifest. When I showed up, that spiritual mass must have reacted to my own spirit, I think. The elementals that best suited my nature resonated with me and melded into my spirit once I had come to some determination on what I would be."

"Are they like my shirei? Can you talk to them?"

"Not at all. Think of them more like pieces of my own soul now. They don't have a separate identity like a youma that was already formed into the world with a dominant personality. They can't talk and interact like your shirei do with you, they don't even have anything that remotely resembles a consciousness. The reishin inside of me were unborn, unformed manifestations of elemental power, and when I resonated with them and they melded with my spirit, we became one."

"How do they work?" he asked curiously.

His kirin nature could clearly sense the energy-resonance inside Yuka, and he had been able to ever since she had come back the night before. It wasn't quite like being able to sense another kirin but the feeling of Yuka's spiritual presence had taken on a definite weight to it that hadn't been there before.

"As I understand it," Yuka said. "The reishin have within them all of the elemental properties of the element they are attached to. These properties manifest themselves in me one of two ways... they can enhance or enable to to utilize a special sort of ability that is intrinsic to that element when I choose to summon up my spiritual power, or they can allow me to control other reishin of that element itself, provided that my spiritual presence outweighs the intrinsic spiritual presence of the reishin I'm trying to command."

Kaname blinked in surprise.

"How?" he asked curious and surprised.

"Everything has a reishin," Yuka said. "But within that there are reishin that are _more_ powerful, and reishin that are less powerful. The same way that you can tame a youma by using the power of your personality to make it submit to your will, with time and sufficient spiritual power I'll be able to call on the other reishin that answer to the elements of the reishin inside of me and make them answer to my command..."

Yuka paused for a moment, then added

"It's sort of like having two aspects to thier use, one where I concentrate my spiritual power inward, enhancing myself," Yuka said. "For example, borrowing speed from the wind to use wind-step, that's that blurring run that looks like shunpo from Bleach-"

Kaname made a face at her for the otaku refference.

"And then one where I push my spiritual power outward, trying to command the elemental reishin around me. Each of these take thier own tithe in spiritual power, but out of the two of them, pushing outward requires a lot more power. It exacts a cost from me in terms of my own spiritual energy, these reishin are part of my spirit but in order to sustain them they require a tithe of energy, rather a lot like a baby inside the womb of a pregnant woman needing food from its mother. Using wind-step to move around is more tiring than running would be. However, manifesting the elemental power of my wind reishin to make the other wind-reishin bow to my command in order for me to shape the wind is much much more tiring. It is an ability that I don't have the strength to use just yet."

"Can you call them out like I can Gouran?" Kaname asked next. "I mean, make them manifest themselves in the physical world."

"No..." Yuka hesitated. "I'm not sure it's even possible. I can use their intrinsic properties, but it'll take time and a lot of work before I can depend on them for regular use. Feeding my reishin my own spiritual energy is sort of like packing a snow ball, but in my case there is only a limited amount of "snow" I can use at any one time, I still need energy to live from you see. Once I feed my reishin enough of my spiritual energy to make them grow in size and strength I'll be able to use more of their power for longer periods of time."

"I'm a little envious," Kaname admitted with a small smile.

Yuka smiled a little in return and said

"I'm still weak now, I can only do a little, but to tell you the truth I envy _you_ Kaname."

"You do? Ihy's that?"

"I often wish I had your good heart and ability to trust and believe in people. You always see what best in people's hearts and you are able to accept them and show unwavering kindness, I sometimes wish I were a little more like that."

Kaname opened his mouth, clearly to tell her that she could be if she worked at it but then Yuka added

"Then I remember that I'm me, and even if I'm not Suzie Sunshine all the time, my ability to anticipate the ways my enemies will move has kept me on my feet if not triumphant most of the time. I'm not a kirin, and I'm not a pacifist and i don't think my nature is suited to being either of those things. That's why you're you and I'm me. I think we'll have to work with that. I'll learn some things from you, but I think I can only ever apply them to the way I see the world already."

"I think you sell yourself short sometimes, and you're always so hard on yourself," Kaname said. "I wish you'd let me in a little and tell me who it is that makes you that way. I've known a person with natural ambition, he was the most amazing person, Yuka, far-seeing but compassionate. I know that there is a difference between being ambitious and being driven; and Yuka, you're driven, won't you tell me what's chasing you?"

Yuka stiffened slightly and when she turned to look over at him it was with that face she wore that hid her feelings. She smiled her masking school-smile, all cynical capriciousness as though the thoughts of others couldn't possibly have any affect on her and said

"I just hate to loose."

Kaname sighed a little at what was clearly a half-truth, but decided to let the matter drop. They both laid out flat on their back atop the rock in the middle of the field and looked up at the sea of stars swirling in the skies above them.

"Hey. Yuka," Kaname said hesitantly into the dark. "Do you think we'll find Gyousou-sama? I thought he'd be with his soldiers, fighting to reclaim his throne. He's an amazing man and an amazing soldier, there's no way that he would let a usurper take up his rightful place for so long unless he was somehow incapacitated. What could have happened to him? Where could he be?"

"I've been thinking about that one too," Yuka said a little reluctantly. "I don't know anything about him other than what you've told me, so if you say he's amazing I guess I'll have to take that at face value, although it is kind of hard not to hold his absence against him."

"I truly with that you wouldn't!" Kaname said fervently. "There's no way he would abandon anyone, especially his people. Gyousou-sama loves his kingdom and it's people, he would die for them. There has to be something that is keeping him from reclaiming his place."

"Well anyway, I've been thinking about it and I believe I've come up with a plan to help us find out where he is."

"Really?" Kaname said, amazed.

"Really really," Yuka confirmed. "It's a bit risky, but here it is... If I were a usurper, taking over the rightful throne of a man who was a match for me in brains and skill, I'd sure as hell want to know where that person is every single moment of every day."

"I'm with you so far but that doesn't tell us-"

"Just hear me out," Yuka said. "So, the usurper has to keep him alive but out of the way, hidden somewhere. Eishou-dono and the others all think that the Tower of Penitence in Shin Province is that place, and for a long while so did I but I've been thinking about it some more and now I'm pretty sure that it's not it."

"It's not? but why?"

"Think about it; it's large, it's obvious, it's impenetrable and heavily guarded... it's a decoy. It's _gotta_ be a decoy."

"Eishou-dono says that he and the others have already investigated every single other place that a usurper might keep a king as amazing as Gyousou-sama imprisoned and still have a hope of retaining him," Kaname argued.

"They've been operating in the dark though," Yuka said. "The only way to find out where Ansen is keeping his rival, your king, is to go straight to the source."

Kaname looked over at her in the moonlight, dismayed, but not entirely surprised. He opened his mouth to protest.

"He still holds court at Hakkei Palace," she cut him off. "The imperial palaces are fortresses built to withstand both siege and individual infiltration that is true... I've been in a few of them myself, so I know what I'm talking about. But I won't be rabble rousing, laying siege or trying to sneak in through the sewers or somesuch. I think I've come up with a way that will allow me to walk straight in through the front door."

"I'm listening," Kaname said after a long pause.

"I figure with him being a usurper on the throne, and Tai in the state it's in, Ansen is probably spendthrift and extravagant."

"Ansen was well known for the parties he attended with the former king, whom I have learned was given the internment name "The Extravagant King"."

"Internment name?" Yuka questioned, unfamiliar with the term.

"There are three names that a ruler is given in the course of their reign. the first of course being the name they are known by before they ascend the throne. The second being their regnal name. The third is the name that they are given after they die and are interred in their graves, usually having something to do with the reason they fell."

"Sheesh, what an epitaph," Yuka muttered. "Well any way, if that's true then it's probably to our advantage. I hate having to make assumptions about a person based on rumor without ever having met the man so I can get a read on him, but in this case there's not any other options open. I'll have to assume that this usurper-king is a man who likes his comforts and his entertainments."

"I don't really remember much of him, I only knew him a little while when I was a child, but I guess that's as good a premise to start from as any," Kaname said.

"So, working from that I thought of a way to not only get in to see him but also be accepted into his court. Remember how I told you I had that summer job at the beach-house reading fortunes? Well, I think can use that to my advantage now. I figure I'll use my tarot cards and some props to bill myself as an exotic fore-seer from Hourai, someone who can actually foretell the future. They don't know that there is or is not such a thing in our homeworld and i figure I'll make myself credible by creating something that I will then "foresee" when I get there."

"What if Ansen doesn't think you're the real deal an has you locked up or executed or something?" Kaname pointed out.

"With command of metal and wood reishin, I don't think there's a prison in this world that can hold me in. I'll just have to play the cards that are dealt to me. I think I can do this. Consider this, what is the one thing that a known usurper wants to hear?"

Kaname shrugged.

"That he is the real deal and that the other one is a fake who stole his destiny. Once I'm in, this is my hook. I'll use my cards to read his fortune and tell him that the gods or whatever had sent me far from my home to address this grievous imbalance in the Way of Heaven or whatever."

It had worked for _her_, when Kou-ou had said it, so chances were pretty good that feeding him exactly what he wanted to hear would net her an all access pass to the palace, and from there she was sure she could find some kind of map or document that would tell her where he'd hid that blasted king.

"Then once I have his trust, and I've found out where he's hiding your king I'll communicate it to you and your friends can go rescue him. Once he's free and you're all safe and sound, I'll sneak out and we can all figure out how to take him down."

Yuka had originally thought about using her status as a kaikyouku to pretend that she couldn't understand a single word of the tongue of this world and work through an interpreter while she played the meek and shy maiden, possibly impersonating one of those women from countries that kept their ladies veiled and locked away from the view of men all the time, then she remembered that Ansen was still technically a sage, with a built-in Babel-fich ability, so such a pretense would be wasted on him. All she had was the basics of the idea right then, she'd need to think it over more carefully before she tried anything, but the basics were there and she wanted her kirin-friend's opinion on things first.

"So what do you think?" she asked after a long period of silence.

"I'm not sure _what_ to think," Kaname said honestly. "On one hand it sounds like a good enough plan to work, especially if you're right about the Tower of Penitence not being the place that Ansen is keeping Gyousou-sama. I've heard everyone say that operating in a void of information is just _asking_ for a disaster to occur and they're all really worried about it. But on the other hand, I think this plan is way too risky. You're talking about walking into the lions den all alone and counting on your acting skill to win over a person who's going to have every reason to be suspicious of you. I don't know if that's going to work, I'm too afraid he might decide to kill you and I don't want to take that sort of risk."

"Kaname, you're not taking a risk, I _want_ to do this," Yuka said with earnest pleading. "I don't really have any other job to do since Eishou and his lot have taken you under their wing. _Send me in_. I can be your ears on the inside. I _know_ I can do this."

"It not whether you _can_, it's whether you _should_," Kaname argued, genuinely concerned for her. "Yuka, you could get seriously hurt or even killed."

"I've been in dangerous situations before and I think the advantages are worth the risk," Yuka replied. "I'm the only one with the unique skill-set that will let me pull this off, so I should be the one to go."

Kaname looked at her intense face and it matched his own intense desire to find a way, _any_ way, to get even the smallest scrap of information about his liege. Yuka knew that that was the matter that weighed the heaviest on his heart and mind, and it was only the reason she wanted to go so badly. It was all to ease his suffering at not being near his 'd made an empathic connection with him and she hated to see him suffer, and she'd do anything to ease his mind. In her mind, why else was she here but for that purpose?

Yuka said that there were parts of him she wished she could emulate, well the same could be said in reverse for him, he often envied the way Yuka could decide upon a course of action and follow through with it with such confidence. He could sense that she'd been through things that had shaken her ability to believe in her own convictions, but that her spirit had been strong enough to carry her through it, bruised, battered, but still whole and moving forward without hesitation.

"I'll think about it," he said reluctantly.

Yuka smiled a little trying not to feel too victorious and let the matter rest. She was confident that, in time, Kaname would eventually let her do something to help him out. She couldn't have gotten this far for nothing.


	25. Book I: Path of Sorrows: Chapter 24

"On your feet," a gruff, angry command came along with the sharp pain of a booted foot kicking her roughly in the side.

Yuka growled and rolled out of her futon, glaring at the person who woke her so rudely. It was the guy from the day before again and he came accompanied by four armed men in armor. Yuka already didn't like the situation. She liked it even less when they tried to surround her with thier spears lowered in her direction.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Yuka demanded sharply.

"You were out of your quarters again the night before," the soldier said by way of answer.

He struck her as being one of those anal retentive military officials, the sort who liked a rule for everything and would uphold even the stupidest regulations simply because some part of him got a kick out of making others dance to his tune. Yuka decided then and there that his new nickname was Anus. Another soldier, younger than him but obviously the second in charge had a slightly conflicted look on his face.

"You brought Taiki home to us, so I want to believe the best of you," the young soldier added over his commanders glare. "But I'm afraid that I must keep peace within my faction and too many of them don't like you."

"What the hell do I care whether they like me or not," Yuka snapped irritatedly.

This was why she hated working with people, they always inevitably suspected the worst of her and then turned on her. It happened in her family, it had happened in school and it was happening here. Yuka wondered why she bothered trying to get close to people.

"It is suspected that there may be a spy among our number," the young official replied candidly. "Everyone on this island knows everyone else so no-one really wants to suspect anyone, but they all don't know you so you're the obvious target to pin their suspicion on. I'm going to have to ask you to stay confined to your quarters for the time being and to please bear with our added precaution."

"Added precaution? What added precaution?" she demanded suspiciously.

Anus relishingly dangled up a set of heavy wrist manacles and a chain choke-collar.

"You're not serious," Yuka said flatly. "Not only do you want to keep me under house arrest, but you want to chain me up as well? No way in hell!"

"My deepest apologies for the inconvenience," you young officer said with chagrin. "But please bear with us until after we have located the infiltrator. I promise that no harm will come to you while you are being detained."

He was using a soothing tone on Yuka, as if she were some kind of restless horse that was trying to get away from its owners well-meaning attempts to make it safe. Yuka was in no mood to be soothed, especially when she hadn't done anything so terribly wrong. So she'd snuck out with Kaname to talk some things over, big deal! It wasn't their place to tell her and her friend where and where not to go. Taiki was thier Taiho, _he_ outranked _them;_ **not** the other way around.

"You say no harm will come to me, but if you try and put those chains on me, I can't promise the same for you!" Yuka snarled in reply, moving adeptly out of the way of one of the guards attempts to close in on her.

She was unarmed and just out of bed, dressed only in her light sleeping yukata. When the guard reached to grab her wrist and snap on the manacle, Yuka reflexively twisted her own wrist towards his thumb to break his hold, just as her sensei had taught her, then twisted again to catch his own wrist. She pulled back, locked his elbow with her other arm then skipped lightly behind him with his arm in her possession. Pulling up on his arm while pushing his palm back towards his elbow and digging into the backs of his knees in the kneepit with her toes she brought him to one knee. The other three guards, minus Anus, started to close in on her with the intention of making her loose their comrade. She shoved the man forward on his face and ran right over top of him, launching herself at her armed would-be captors.

Yuka had woken up with another sense this morning and it was more acute than it had been the day before. She could hear the wood beneath her toes and in the weapons of her enemies before her as easily as a person might hear music in the radio. She could sense the movement of the metal on thier bodies and in thier weapons as easily as she could feel the touch of sun on her skin. It felt real to her. And stranger still, other than external knowledge her body felt more alive than it ever had before. A strange humming seemed to flow through her, sing in her blood and vibrate in her bones.

:It's like I can do anything I can think of, all I have to do is move!:

So she did.

Her metal sense told them where exactly their weapons were at all times, and every single crease and hole in their armor. One guard rushed on her left, his pike swinging downward in an overhead strike, Yuka spun and, without consciously thinking about it or realizing what she was doing until she'd already done it, pushed her will into the wooden pole of his staff, willing the wood weaker. When it hit the floor the pikeshaft shattered and Yuka used the momentary distraction to grab hold of him by the front of his armor and throw him over her hip.

I'm still not quite sure how I'm doing this, it's not like being controlled by a hinma, I'm in control of my body but I'm able to move in ways that should be way beyond my level, but it feels so natural!:

The guard was taken aback, but regrouped when his other comrades rushed in on her from her one o'clock and her eight o'clock. Yuka abruptly sank into the splits, tossing aside her modesty for the moment. The pikes that had been levied, lance-style, to take her out, wound up passing just over her head and hitting the men faced across from each other. From her splits position, Yuka bent over to get her hands on the floor and then whipped her hind leg around to catch the back of her eight o'clock's knees as she levered herself up to a handspring that took her up over the back of eight o'clock. While she had the element of surprise she roundhoused a kick to the back of eight o'clocks head, sending him forward onto his face. She spun to face her last opponent. One o'clock was a big fellow. He stalked her carefully from the side thrusting his pike at her in startling movements, clearly herding her the way one would a dangerous animal. Yuka gave him a look laced with disdain from her position and listened with her reishin for any possible easy exits. Anus guarded the sole door to the room and one o'clock had the only window to his back (incidentally making it hard to read him because his body was in shadow). The other three were rousing quickly, Yuka had taken them down but they were not out.

"Calm down Kaikyaku-woman," the nice guard tried again, clearly trying to salvage the situation, but Yuka's blood was up now and she was having none of it.

"You kick me rudely awake and tell me that you want to put chains on me. It doesn't matter how polite you are about it, that's just not going to happen," she replied smartly.

"My apologies if our method is abrupt, but winter is closing in quickly in Tai and if we do not rescue our liege before the snows descend the mountains we will have to wait until spring. In that time our enemy will have time to plan a counter attack so it is necessary to use abrupt and decisive methods to deal with any divisions from within so that we can quickly concentrate our sole energy on finding our lord," the man explained.

Yuka was listening with half an ear, most of her concentration was focused on the man trying to herd her into a corner. She'd never tried it before, but she'd seen enough parkour (and martial arts films) to know that rushing at and enemy in a two-dimensional way was needlessly simple when there were _three_ dimensions available to her. Yuka let him herd her over to a corner and as he thrust his pike into one wall in preparation for reaching her, Yuka crouched, wind-hopped up, pulled her reishin into the wooden wall and ran up it pushing up off it at the top and backflipping over her intended captor. She crouched, curling up in midair and came down hard with her knees on the mans armored shoulders. His weight collapsed under the sudden attack and Yuka rolled, sensing the other three already on their feet and moving towards her. She rolled to her feet and let her momentum carry her to the wall opposite where she danced up the corner and then onto the double ceiling beam holding up the arched roof. She curled like a cat in one of the holes made by the joins in the supporting timbers and surveyed her options for a split second.

Some idiot actually took his pike and tried to poke at her, like a housewife scaring a rat. Yuka grabbed his pike and shoved it back at him, knocking him on his ass. The remaining ones were circling and Yuka could hear (and sense) that there were more soldiers booking it down the hall to help the poor sods deal with the crazy foreign woman.

:_Can't take them all on in a closed space like this, time for a change_.:

The window was clear. Yuka swung down in perfect parallel bars formation then redirected her momentum, pointing her toes forward and slid right through the tiny window with its little rice paper screen. She flew right through it then rolled to disperse her momentum when she touched down outside.

:_Just my luck_!: she thought.

There were soldiers flooding out from other rooms along the wooden walkway ringing the outside courtyard to her left and to her right. She lightly kipped up onto the decorative wood railing edging the walkway and ran along it until she reached the nearest pillar supporting the roof. With the help of her wood reishin, she monkeyed right up it and hopped onto the roof. The tiles were cold and hard against her bare feet and she wondered just how the hell she was supposed to run along it with no shoes on. Her hurried musings were side tracked by the realization that there was already someone else up there with her.

:_Hottie_...: Yuka thought absently.

He was dark-haired and clean shaven with youthful good looks that should have looked slightly effeminate but the man himself exuded such masculinity that there was no calling his gender into question. He was dressed in simple clothing, a belted fitted tunic with frog-and-toggle fastenings up the left side and breeches with a calf-length overcoat slitted for fighting. The sword he wore sheathed at his side bore evidence of a great deal of familiarity with its use.

"While I'm sure we've all delighted in the exercise young miss, I'm afraid that your morning regimen ends here," he said smoothly.

Yuka knew she would get only one chance to take him off guard. She smirked and promptly flipped him the bird then blurred into wind-step right in front of him. The instants preoccupation her opponent had in dealing with the way she was suddenly _there_, then _not_ _there_ and _right in front of him_ was all she needed to grab onto the long tails of his smart over coat and prosaically yank it up over his head and then push him over onto his back. While he stumbled, Yuka rushed past him, her breath was coming in short gasps now. Even though she had barely used the power of her reishin at all, she had still used it and using it was twice as tiring as physical exertion.

"Ow owowowowowow..." she mumbled, wincing in pain as her bare feet hit against the hard tiles when she ran along the top of the roofline. Behind her she could hear the sound of the angry soldiers boiling up like hornets from a hive. She wind-hopped from her building to the one next to it, searching for Kaname's room.

"Of _course_ it'd be across the friggin' obstacle course!" she muttered to herself.

It was one of the smaller set ups for martial training. Really all it consisted of were oaken poles about seven inches in diameter of differing lengths suck into the ground, many of them with other poles lashed across them horizontal to the ground. It was made to simulate tree-top fighting and to help a fighter learn how to balance properly. Yuka lightened her fall and perched herself, one-footed, on top of the nearest pole and surveyed her position.

:_That's a lot of soldiers_...: Yuka thought doubtfully.

But her sense of insult wasn't going to let her back down... and her sense of mischief said that this could be fun. There was also another sense involved. Her wood reishin was manifesting its useful ability, letting the obstacle course made of wood enter her senses and making it feel like an extension of her own self. She knew the position and flexibility or rigidity of each log and bamboo pole and piece of rope in the little simulated forest as intimately as she knew the shape of her own body.

"Yeeha!" she ululated as she used her gymnastics training on the parrallel bars to fall forward and catch her hands on a nearby crossbar swing up and around until her feet were on top of it then use the springy nature of the bamboo like a springboard to her next target, a crossbeam right in front of two charging soldiers. She swung outwards, hitting the lead guard just under the chin with the heels of her feet and knocking him back into his comrade. Amusingly enough, their fall tripped up the small cohort of guards rushing into the courtyard behind them. She ran along the beam and vaulted over a pole to the top of the next one over then slid down it to where the crossbeam was attached. She hooked her knees over the beam and swung down watching in upside down fascination as several more soldiers of the same group came running at her. Her wood sense informed her that there was a partially attached half-beam that had splintered off near to her hand. She grabbed onto it, pulled it back as far she she could make it go, waited until they were within range then let go. It knocked them back comically. Yuka swung right back up onto the beam, deciding for the time being that she was just going to have to ignore the fact that everyone on the ground below her had a good look up her yukata and straight at her panties. Her cheeks burned still and her sense of insult grew.

The next set to come at her included some adventurous souls who were climbing some of the nearby poles to rush her on the cross beams. They also clearly hadn't been in His Majesty's Royal Army for very long because their balance was terrible. Yuka almost felt bad when she bounced on thier beam to shake them off and then used her momentum from the bounce to slingshot to the next beam filled with invaders and swung around, shaking it this way and that. She ran up a pole and backspringed down to the next lot, however even with her added wood-sense Yuka's overconfidence led to her downfall. She forgot to adjust for the added weight of her opponents, and when she landed in the middle of the pole in a move that should have merely let the bamboo crossbeam bend and then snap back, the pole broke, sending her crashing down to the earth.

She was surrounded by pikes extended towards her and there was a throbbing in her right ankle where she had landed on it just a little wonky. Yuka considered her opponents, and wondered if there might be a way she could take them or at least to escape so that she could find Kaname and he could use his authority as Taiho to get them to see reason. Yuka had the suspicion that if she let them put the manacles on her they wouldn't be coming off again anytime soon. Sure they'd give all sorts of perfectly logical reasons if either Kaname or she tried to protest, but the truth was, they were just going to do what they wanted anyway.

Yuka held her fighting stance as the circled to close in on her and wished she had two of her fighting sticks to even the odds. The loose dirt floor of the training ground was clear of debris for her to use as a weapon and she could not yet call the wind to blow up a dust storm into their eyes. She sensed the wood of the pole of a nearby pike charge directly at her. Yuka took enhanced speed from the wind and dodged out of the way, redirecting the momentum of the pike and twirling it out of her opponents grasp and into her own.

:_Too bad I don't really know how to use it,_: she thought with regret.

Still, it was better than nothing. Especially when she took a quick run forward and used the pike to pole vault herself up into the air with a little help from her wind reishin. Yuka arched easily over one of the bamboo crossbeams but came down awkwardly on a high scaffolding, and had to windmill her arms to regain her balance. Her chest was burning and her empty, breakfast-less stomach was a hard-pinched knot that ached, her ankle throbbed and she felt exhausted. She defiantly chucked the pike down at the pursuant closest to her and then ran across beam and up pillars until she could wind-leap over to the nearest roof on the other side of the courtyard where she again started to make her way (on an ankle that twinged with every step she took on it) over to where Kaname might be.

She couldn't see him anywhere! Yuka started to panic a little. She had assumed that he was somewhere within the compound nearby but she didn;t see him and she didn;t dare go inside to look for him.

:_Duh, Yuka, call for help_,: she admonished herself. So simple and yet it was always the last thing on her mind when it was time for her to fight.

She called out Kaname's name, half tempted despite the gravity of the situation to call out "sanctuary! ssanctuary!" as well. her energy was starting to fail her and she wasn't sure how much longer she could keep up the pace. She put a foot wrong when she glanced back behind her to see how far away her pusuers were. Cold hard tiles bit into her body as she automatically rolled to disperse the impact, but she was already doomed to roll off the tilted surface of the roof anyway and a last panicked instinct to push out with her wind reishin was probably the only thing that prevented her from breaking her neck. A tiny dust cyclone kicked up around her as Yuka felt an ephemeral presence that was there and not there push her up, slowing her fall. The next instance her vision greyed over, signalling that she was on the verge of loosing consciousness, her body felt cold from the sudden drain of energy. She collapsed to her knees, breathing heavily, and tried to get up and run but her strength failed her. She could only watch, too weak from exhaustion to fight, as the soldiers who were supposed to be on her side (or she on theirs) surrounded her like enemies.

"It's only for a little while, though I wonder how long now that you've made an enemy of almost everyone in this fort by knocking half of thier teeth in," Anus told her as he briskly snapped the manacles around her wrists and fastened the metal collar loosely around her neck, locking the chain that connected the two of them. Two soldiers nearby picked her up by her upper arms and dragged her off and she was too tired to fight them.

Yuka was left to reflect in her rooms for an hour, with a ridiculous abount of armed guards monitoring every possible exit, when Kaname burst into the room with Eishou in tow.

"Yuka!" he said in dismay on seeing her. She was a bit battered and a little bruised, and she had gotten neither a meal nor a change of clothes when they had dumped her in the little room to reflect on her non-existant crimes.

"You let her go!" kaname said, his non-existent temper lighting up a little.

"I'm afraid I can't do that," Anus said calmly. "Especially not now. There is still our own position to consolidate and we can't have a little loose boulder like her rolling through the castle. She could have gone along quietly, I'd have found a way to release her soon enough, but she chose to fight it out with the people she claims to be trying to help and there were injuries. Because of this, most people are certain they've caught the culprit, and now their guard is lax and we're still no closer to catching the real spy not to mention that we're down several trainees because she wanted to play on the training course."

"My good sir," Kaname said in his peacemaker voice. "You can't surely have asked Yuka to just up and let you chain her up when she hasn't done anything wrong."

"We had assumed her innocence and were only putting the manacles on for show while we hunted for the real culprit," the nice guardsman explained.

"Tcheh!" Yuka said scornfully.

"Well that's not how we do things," kaname replied. "Of _course_ she fought you when you were trying to incarcerate her without cause or proof."

"She was out of her bed again last night. Our spy has to be getting her secret messages out somehow, it made the most sense that it would be her," Anus said firmly. "She's a foreign witch from another world."

"I'm sensing a little bit of prejudice here," Yuka muttered irritatedly. "And what was he doing looking at my bed in the middle of the night in the first place."

Kaname sent her a calming look that said for her to let him handle this without any commentary from her.

"Miss Yuka was with me," he explained patiently. "We had some matters we wished to discuss in private, and it's hard to find a private place in a barracks packed to the rafters. There was no need for all of this, certainly there was no need to detain her much less put chains on her even if it was a precaution. Lastly, you should have consulted with me first before you made any move to detain her."

"That's probably why you were sent out sightseeing so early, getting you out of the way so this guy could get at me," Yuka countered.

"It saddens me that there is so little trust here," Kaname chided them both. "We're all on the same side here, we should be working together to get Gyousou-sama back on his throne. We don't have time for in-fighting. You sir, shall unlock those chains on her and let her out of this room."

The guard looked like he wanted to protest.

"That is my direct command as your Taiho," kaname said firmly.

That meant the man had to obey it, for the position of Taiho was second only to the king himself and any order that a person of Taiki's exalted rank gave would have to be immediately obeyed. Yuka couldn't restrain a smirk as the guard dithered for a moment more, then reluctantly walked over with the keys and began to unlock the manacles and collar. She thought about saying something smart but a martyred look from Kaname kept her silent so she just walked out of the room, past the guards and in search of breakfast.

* * *

Seikishi, the former Youko Nakajima, gazed down into her sword, her closest adviser, the kirin Keiki, watched the scenes of a morning's exercise along with her. When Suiguutou decided they had seen enough, the images faded, leaving their amazed reflections staring back at them.

"It's not a hinma," Keiki said, breaking the silence.

He spoke with authority, and if anyone were to know the evidence of interference by a shirei it would be one of only twelve beings in the world capable of taming one.

"Then what?" Youko asked curiously. "I've never seen anything like that, it was like something out of a movie!"

"I do not know," he replied honestly. "What is of greater concern to me at the moment, however, are two things. First being the continued absence of the Royal Tai, but closer to the point is your former schoolmate. It is clear she has gotten her powers from _somewhere_, and I know we both remember what happened the _last_ time she received something in this world."

He was, of course, reffering to the way she had worked ofr the king of Kou to try to eliminate Youko before she could take the throne.

"Do you feel she should be trusted to continue to act? She is close to a kirin I consider a friend, and I do not have many friends. I am... concerned."

Youko let the silence drag on for a long moment as she considered his words.

"People can change, Keiki," she said after deliberation. "I am proof of that. I believe that Yuka truly wants to help Taiki. The fact that she brought him to this world and has been doing her very best to help and protect him is proof of her intentions. We'll continue to keep an eye on the situation for now, but I think that she can be left to her own devices."

"I have another concern," Keiki said hesitantly. "Her ability... It is not one that can be bestowed by ordinary means."

"What does that mean?" Youko asked curiously.

"Emperors grant their officials immortality when they enter their names as sages on the Divine Registry. Nyosen are chosen by Seioubo. Kings receive their status when they ascend the throne. With the exception of the High Oracle of the Jasper Mist Gyoukuyou, there are no sages who are able to commune with the reishin of this world. If one of the Divinities that rule in the Heavens has decided to grant her this power, then it is because there will be a need for it. I worry about two things, first being that there exists something that is so great a threat that even the gods are made wary by it. The second being, no power exists that does not exact a price. I worry for your friend that the price for wielding this power will be the ultimate price."

Youko sighed a bit and said

"You know how much Yuka likes to charge ahead. Even if you expressed these concerns to her, she would decide that the choice she has made is one she's willing to live with. I doubt a little thing like concern for her well-being is going to slow her down one little bit when there's something she feels needs doing."

"No wonder the two of you cannot get along," Keiki said with what passed for humor with him.

"Indeed, the things we despise most in others are the things in ourselves we find difficult to face," Youko said with wry agreement.

"I cannot forget the first words I ever exchanged with your young friend. I had given you the Suiguutou and requested that you use it to slay the tenchou and you tried to run the other way, then the smaller girl stepped right before me and said "give me the sword and _I'll_ do it!" I thought then that she was too impetuous but also that she did not flinch, if she learned patience she might someday do well. It seems that whatever power has decided she must wield the reishin has seen something in her worth cultivating, despite her status as a kaikyaku."

"Any word on the investigation into the usurper on the throne?" Youko asked deciding to change the subject.

Keiki's worries as to why Yuka might have received her new abilities and the cost they might someday exact from her left her more worried than she wanted to admit to right then.

:_Her ability to follow the path she believes in, whether right or wrong, without holding back to the very end, I suppose, is always something I admired about her. I remember when we were in school together, and I assisted the bullying, she had the strength of will to treat me with equal disdain as anyone else who ostracized her, even though I was class rep. Whatever else her faults, she's never been a hypocrite but I don't like this one little bit. King Kou is not the only being that can use Yuka's stubbornness against her. She's so straightforward, I'm worried that whatever decided to give her this power plans to **use** her, and if it is a being that is powerful enough to bestow such a gift, then it is likely a being that will view one lone Kaikyaku girl as a disposable commodity in whatever dark struggle lies ahead_.:

"He holds a false court in Whitejewel Palace," Keiki reported, oblivious to Yuoko's inner thoughts on her friends predicament. "And sits upon the dragon throne. He is ruthless about quashing the least rebellion, and he keeps the nobility in line by holding their loved ones hostage. He possesses a sizable private army and has dealings with a group who call themselves the foresworn."

"The foresworn?" Youko questioned.

"A cult, and one that is not limited to only Tai," Keiki explained. "Every kingdom has some form of the Foresworn lurking in its shadows. Simply put, the foresworn are a group who worship Youma and believe that the world had been out of balance since the start of Tentei's rule."

"What does that mean?"

"You are aware of how many eons ago the world was sundered and undone, then remade by Tentei into lands that live under the Laws of Heaven, with kings being chosen by kirin and those who have lost the way losing the mandate of heaven to rule. The foresworn believe that Tentei is a false god, one that seized power from the Four Divine God-Beasts in a coup in heaven and continues to enforce his unrightful regime in this world through the kirin and the kings they select. They believe that keeping the world under the direct rule of Heaven is tipping the scales of _true_ balance."

"And this isn't true?" Youko said, still foreign-born enough to need to ascertain it.

"Naturally it is not true!" Keiki said sharply.

"But don't they have a point?" Youko persisted curiously. "Equals and opposites, good and evil, if neither can exist without the other, then aren't they saying that bringing greater good into the world is an attempt to eliminate evil and thus run counter to the premise of balance?"

"True Divine Balance takes the existence of both as a _given_," Keiki explained patiently. "A world under the Laws of Heaven does not attempt to make a perfect balancing point between good and evil, but to maintain true harmony by the benign principles of righteousness and compassion. It does not say that "for every good in the world there must exist an evil, and this is balance" it says that "there is good and evil in the world and balance exists when all ranks from highest to lowest acknowledge the universal order, and _this_ is balance." This is why people must not be subjugated, the will to commit to the will of heaven and acknowledge universal truth will come to every person who has the freedom to decide, and to do that the conditions must be right. This is why one does not lean unnecessarily harshly on ones people, for to create uneasiness in their minds detracts from their ability to acknowledge the universal truth."

"You seem more uneasy about this usurper working with the Foresworn than you do about the fact that he has taken over a throne from a rightful ruler and found a way to circumvent the Laws of Heaven."

"Both are great concerns, but the fact that he has taken over the throne is a matter of policy only for Tai until it involves Kei, the matter with the Foresword concerns me a little more because there is a sect of the cult here in this kingdom. If they should get wind of the Foresworn's successes in Tai then it may give them the motivation they need to go from a minor inconvenience to becoming a major threat."

"Are thier numbers large enough to become a major threat?" Youko asked.

"Not to anyone's knowledge, they tend to be insular... for obvious reasons."

"Then I suppose we can do little more right now than watch and wait. I will send a letter to En advising him of your concerns. Do you think we should add in the part about Yuka? He might have information in his libraries about such an occurrence. Maybe he will know where she came by such a power and whether or not it will hurt her in the end."

"Very well," Keiki agreed. "In the meantime I will have the provincial armies keep a closer watch on the movements of the foresworn in this kingdom, and have the palace librarian search the archives for any possible record of abilities similar to the ones your friend displays."


	26. Book I: Path of Sorrows: Chapter 25

To say that the food hall was an inhospitable place for one Yuka Sugimoto would have been a little like calling the ocean wet. Every young trainee in that room had either been on the receiving end of Yuka's little morning jaunt or was close friends or roomates with someone who had. If looks could kill that world would have had one less kaikyouku to worry about.

:_I only hope they don't poison my food or spit in it_,: Yuka thought resignedly as she straightened her back, squared her shoulders and went to fetch her food.

:_A person would think I'd be used to it by now_,: she thought glumly to herself.

But she caught the morose turn her thoughts had taken, noted that they were skirting dangerously close to self-pity, and wreched herself out of them.

:_At least it wasn't entirely my own fault that no-one likes me this time_,: she thought, trying for a rare bit of optimism.

Usually, when it came to her fellow students, the reason they disliked Yuka was entirely her own fault. She had a bad attitude, a sharp tounge and a whole lot of observations to make when people were being stupid, and she wasn't the least timid about using any of them. Kaname was often chiding her to learn to be more diplomatic and get along better with others but Yuka just didn't see how smiling and bowing her head and agreeing with people even when they were being idiots was any different from letting them tell her who she was supposed to be. With her refusal to compromise, Yuka was known around the halls of her school as being "a difficult case" if one was being polite, and "a heinous bitch" if one was not.

The amount of people who had their feet "accidentally" in her path when she turned to find a place to sit shouldn't have surprised her. And of course no-one wanted her to eat with them. Yuka thought about taking her three bowls of rice to a quiet spot in Kaname's courtyard but decided that it would be running away, and her contrary nature wouldn't allow that. They didn't want her there, and since it was partly their fault (or at least, partly the fault of their bad leader) that she was so disliked then they could just suffer her presence and get indigestion for all she cared. Yuka found a small tabe out of the way and sat with her back to the wall, digging in hungrily and ignoring the glares of the people surrounding her.

Eishou dropped into a bench across from her at the far end of a chow hall that was filled with soldiers glaring at her. Yuka had her back to a wall and three bowls of rice in front of her and so was very much inclined to ignore the hostility. She was used to it anyway and the days when being disliked would have made her cry into her rice were long since gone.

"I am absent for a single afternoon and you manage to overturn months of rigid discipline and training," he said, his voice laced with amusement rather than censure.

Yuka looked back at him, saying nothing until she could determine whether he was her enemy or her ally. She was trying not to show her usual "bitchy" face at him, since he seemed to be somewhat friendly.

"My deepest apologies for your treatment young lady," he said. "I gave no order for you to be detained."

"Are you being honest or playing the good cop?" Yuka demanded of him with forthright suspicion.

Eishou looked blank as to her meaning so Yuka rephrased the question, wanting to know whether he was trying to get on her good side.

"You know, I am actually rather impressed that you managed to keep out of their grasp for so long. Lieutenant Chand by the way is itching for a rematch, says you used some kind of spell on him to get him off guard."

:_He's not actually far off_,: Yuka thought with some private amusement.

"It's understandable that you would react the way you did, but I am afraid you have made an enemy of most of the fort."

"I'll be sure to check my shoes for tacs and lock up my gym clothes," Yuka said dryly.

Eishou gave her a long, measuring look, as if trying to look deep inside of her. Finally, after a long period of silence he said

"I had a cat like you once."

Yuka looked at him from the corner of her eye, her usual attitude in full force on her face.

"She was a stray," he went on. "Small, clearly the runt of the litter. She came into the loft of my family's barn one winter night. We had two mousers already and they were disinclined to share thier hunting grounds with a third."

"Let me guess, eventually the little kitten got taken in by one of the older ones and everyone got along just fine," Yuka said with caustic disbelief, thinking she saw the nice, pat Disney-ending to the story.

"Oh no, not at all," he said to her surprise. "Tama fought with Sella and Chin about as often as she hunted mice. There was no getting the little runt to integrate in with anyone. Even though we fed her cream in addition to her commission, we'd get scratched as often as we'd get even a tiny morsel of affection from her."

Yuka gave the man a look that said 'what's your point?'

"But Tama was a superb mouser, twice as good as the other two, who only eventually grew fat and lazy on the cream from our farm. She didn't fit in, but she didn't really _want_ to. The point is, that Tama always caught mice."

Yuka smiled her sharp, fighting smile and replied

"Where do you want me to hunt?"

Eishou looked pleased and said nothing more.

* * *

Shouryuu, the king of En, was well-known among his ministers for his wanderlust. After five hundred years of accommodating his frequent absences he would have thought they'd all have been accustomed to it by now, or at least learned that trying to admonish him for his frequent absences would do nothing to change his behavior.

:_A tidy little camp they have here_,: he thought, approvingly of his surroundings. :_Though its a bit too easy to sneak in and out of_.:

Then again, he was a past master at getting into and out of places, especially places where he shouldn't be (as evidenced by the number of wives dissatisfied with their husbands he'd spent an evening's dalliance with). He was watching the gate right now, waiting for someone to come sneaking out of it, as he just knew was bound to happen.

:_But what I really want to know is how that Sugimoto girl was able to pull the wool over my eyes, literally_!: Shouryuu thought to himself.

He had moved to block her on the rooftop earlier that day and she'd done some kind of strange optical trick or something because it had looked like she'd just... disappeared into thin air and then reappeared beside him in time to pull his own coat tails right up over his head and push him on his ass. His pride was still smarting.

They'd met very briefly the year before when she'd come along with Youko to help her regain the Throne of Kei. Whatever difficulties the two girls had had previously (that as he recalled, involved an unhesitating kill-strike with Suiguutou to resolve) had been smoothed over by then and the kaikyaku girl had proven an able fighter and ally in the battle to retake the throne. The girl was all fire so far as Shouryuu could tell, though a trifle young for his tastes... he might like his women, but innocent maids were another matter entirely, he preferred to seduce the experienced and eager.

:_She didn't seem to recognize me as Fuukan earlier today, which I suppose is good_,: Shouryuu thought. :_But the more pressing matter is how she came across the ability to shape reishin_.:

He hadn't been King here in this world for five hundred years without coming across the extremely bizarre a time or two. He had had to deal with the Foresworn on more than one occasion, and they had a similar ability to affect reishin in this world. It was an ability they acquired by an arcane ritual involving merging their spiritual essence with the heart of a youma and it came with a fatal price. The malevolent presence that was the nature of a youma came to taint the spirit of the person it inhabited. He was aware of the practice, just as he was aware of the repercussions of such an act. The heart of the youma that merged with them eventually came to consume them the more of the powers of the reishin they used.

:_I hope she hasn't been suckered into making a bad bargain with a Foresworn_,: he thought worriedly. :_For a girl with such a cynical streak, it sure seems like she can be easy to manipulate in the right circumstances. Kou and his kirin did it without any problems apparently, though I'm partly inclined to agree with Seikishi... who **wouldn**'t believe a creature as beautiful as the former Kou kirin and want to follow her with all their heart? Especially when the words she speaks are just what the little girl wanted to hear. And the Foresworn are well-known for rounding up any kaikyaku they can find and using them as expendable merge-fodder.:_

There had been far more than several occasions where Shoryuu had had to deal with the sad, pathetic remains of a Kaikyaku that had been found by Foresworn seekers, who made it a habit to actively look for and kaikyaku that might was up on En's shores, after they'd put through the merge-ritual. The dark taint of a youma made it possible for even an ordinary person to wield great power over elemental reishin (which was how there were youma that could fly or breathe fire of cause storms) however the taint consumed their souls utterly and their bodies changed from human to beast once a certain power-use threshold had been reached. Merge-creatures were extremely dangerous because they were both physically strong and magically powerful but possessed of human-like cunning and a focused desire to fulfill their mission. It was great power, but the host lost their humanity in the bargain.

:And I think the worst thing is that the poor bastards know exactly what is happening to them. The change is agonizing, from what I understand, and they can feel the creatures they've merged with consuming their spirit bit by bit. It's sad to see them at the end. I pray to Tentei's mercy that this girl hasn't been taken in by a Foresworn, I'd hate to have to put her down.:

"I already know what you're thinking," Enki, beside him, said. "A kirin is as sensitive to the presence of Youma as we are sensitive to blood, if she had the Taint within her, I'd know. I'd be able to smell it on her, and so would Taiki. However she got her abilities, its wasn't the usual way, because her soul is purely and entirely her own. In fact if anything, it seems like her spiritual presence is even greater than it was before."

"Ouki?" he questioned.

"She's a kaikyaku," Enji said flatly. "Blood and bone. There are too many Laws of Heaven that would be violated with her selection, no it's not the aura of a ruler."

"I guess we'll find out soon enough, here she comes," Shouryuu replied. "Didn't I tell you she'd be sneaking out of there as soon as she had a chance?"

"And I didn't disagree with you," Enki replied, nettled. "For now we should just hang back and see what she does for a bit before you stroll up and announce yourself."

A small shadow, familiar in its outline as belonging to a young woman, crept out of the gate. It was difficult to spot her, but only difficult, her ability to use reishin to hide herself was clearly at the level of a raw beginner. He followed at a safe distance, curious as to what she was up to.

The girl stopped in a wide, round meadow peppered with weathered stones jutting up here and there. At the up-slope edge was a copse of bamboo that led to a deeper forest. A small stream trickled nearby. The girl stretched her muscles, warming them up, then closed her eyes, clearly focusing inward then she blurred to one side, seeming to disappear completely then she blurred in somewhere else at a complete standstill, as if she hadn't moved, her hair only slightly ruffled with the wind of her sudden movement.

It would have looked very elegant if she hadn't suddenly lost her balance, as if slammed into by an unexpected wind, and fell over onto her butt. She climbed to her feet, rubbing her offended posterior, and closed her eyes, crouched as if preparing to run and blurred out again. Again she lost her balance, this time coming directly out of the blur, as though the state she'd entered just spat her out of it, like a youma with a bad taste in its mouth. She went flying and landed in a roll to disperse the weight of her impact. Twice more she tried it, and twice more she failed to achieve a good control over it. Both of those times she wound up rolling arse over end in the grass.

Shouryuu shook his head at her clearly clumsy movements. It was like watching a puppy learning to walk, she was all paws and ears and baby fat.

"It looks like someone's just started learning," he remarked. "Look at her, she's spending more time on the ground than on her feet."

She tried to push off into that blurring step she did and this time she tripped over a rock, fell over onto her side than rolled only to land half in and half out of the nearby stream adding sopping wetness to her slightly clumsy maneuvers.

"We all started somewhere," Enki reprimanded him slightly, then he joined his ruler in a mutual wince of pity as the girl took another header into the grass.

He'd visited her once when she'd been under the "protection" (say in fact, _control_) of the former King of Kou and had seen the way she'd been trained by hinma to kill youma, and could say that her fiery tenacity was probably her biggest carrying point. She certainly needed it right then, because her next two tries to blur into that wind-step spat her out and halfway across the field.

"She should be wearing padding, don't you think?" Shouryuu noted absently. "Or else by the end of this, she's going to be one large bruise."

As Shouryuu and Enki continued to watch, she once again closed her eyes, clearly trying to focus inward but took longer about it this time, gaining control of her mounting frustration at her continued failures. She breathed in and out, then again blurred into the wind. This time, she managed to stick her landing, sort of... she hopped slightly and windmilled her arms as if she were fighting against a shove then sunk her weight and managed to hold her position. But a win was a win and she smiled victoriously and stopped her activities to sit down on a rock and drink from a bamboo flask.

Shouryuu strolled easily out into the field and down the hill. As soon as his feet left the stone path and settled into the grass of the field the girls head whipped around with unerring accuracy to look over at him, though he was still far enough away that she would not have been able to hear him coming.

"Hey there, Missy," Shouryuu said with his best disarming smile and a genial wave in her direction.

Yuka frowned and narrowed her eyes at him, waiting.

"I'm hurt you don't recognize me, with the two of us being battle comrades and all," he continued.

She continued to eye him with dubious disfavor, her expression clearly stating 'I think I'd remember fighting with someone like you, and you don't look like the sort of person I would ally myself with, in fact, you sort of look unreliable from where I'm standing.'

:_That attitude of hers hasn't changed, ornery as a mule_.:

"Surely you haven't forgotten me, after all we've done together..." he left the double entendre hang in his words as he waggled his eyebrows and leered lecherously at her.

Maiden's like her were so easy to fluster, and so cute when they got all _shy_ and blushing! Shouryuu leaned forward, anticipating her embarrassed reaction, expecting her to stammer and blush and go all cute little schoolgirl...

She pulled out a bow and nocked an arrow to the string, sizing him up for a potential target.

"I don't know you, and I don't tolerate strangers tarnishing my reputation," she replied. "I won't kill you of course, but that doesn't mean you will leave unscathed either. I suggest you close that mouth of yours, wanderer."

"Yikes!" he said, raising his hands quickly in surrender, then added in a mutter "_Not_ the reaction I was expecting."

"Oh, come off it, idiot," Enki said, strolling down into the field beside his liege. "What did you think she was going to do? I know many of the women you hang around with most of the time don't care about their reputations anymore but you'd think that a little common sense would have snuck into your thick skull before you opened your mouth."

The kirin turned to Yuka.

"Hey, you remember _me_ right?"

Yuka smiled brightly and welcomingly, putting away the bow and arrow.

"Enki! It's great to see you again!" she said brightly.

"Then this idiot here is my king, Shouryuu," Enki said. "I think you two met briefly before."

Yuka expression faltered a moment as she said

"Ye-es, he was there that night. The night that Kourin died," then more quickly she added. "And I think I remember he might have been with us in the battle for Goldenwave Palace, against Jyoei's forces. I don't think we were ever formally introduced, but I knew of him through Youko."

She turned to face him more fully and directed her next question to him

"Why are you here? Don't you know this is supposed to be a secret rebel training base for Tai's remaining imperial forces?"

"Well you know what they say about secrets," Shouryuu said. "Three can keep a secret only if two of them are dead. And as for why I'm here well, I always like to keep an eye on things that affect En. Enki and I have been watching the situation in Tai for a while now."

"Kaname, er, I suppose you would call him Taiki, told me that you visited once, is that why you're here?"

"I always make it a point to keep an eye on matters in other kingdoms when they affect En. Right now, my kingdom is taking in a lot of refugees from Tai. I have a vested interest in seeing the rightful king put back on the throne and Tai restored to grace under Tentei. Which brings me to you, I suppose... I have a few questions, little missy."

"You can _ask_," Yuka said. Her tone implied 'it's up to me whether I answer, so I'd keep things pleasant if I were you.' She kept the bow near to hand and didn't invite him to approach her. En-ou chuckled a little.

:_Wary as a barncat with a litter of kittens, this one._:

"Well thanks then," he settled himself in the grass with his back resting comfortably against a rock, taking care to make his body language open and easy around her. He even pulled out a jug of sake and poured himself a small saucer. Yuka relaxed a bit.

"First off, how'd you two wind up here?"

Yuka told him the sequence of events as they had happened after she'd been transported back to her world and sought out rumors of another who'd been spirited away as she had, and how she'd slowly added up the oddly shaped pieces about her unusual friend over the course of their budding friendship and came to the conclusion that he was Taiki. Then about how she hauled him out of bed and shoved him into the shoku so that he could find his king. They'd traveled a bit then met up with Eishou and then been taken to the island for safekeeping.

"I'm here to help my friend avoid shitsudou. I won't watch him end up like poor Kourin, not while I can prevent it!" Yuka swore vehemently.

En-ou studied her for a long moment, appraising her. She gave every appearance of being in earnest, but part of him still thought she was a young woman who could not resist the call of adventure. Or maybe that was himself he was thinking of (minus the young woman bit).

"Fair enough," he said, siping on his sake. "More importantly I've noticed you've acquired some new skills since the last time you got here. Those are some abilities that could be dangerous to you as well as everyone around you. I need to know where you got them."

Yuka hesitated a bit, looking uncertain and then with a shrug honestly answered

"I'm not quite sure exactly. At first, I thought I might have been dreaming, or having some kind of waking hallucination..."

She related a tale about an a cave under a yabouku filled with raw magic but seemed either unable or reluctant to describe what had happened to her within it, glossing over the details and simply saying "and when I emerged I could feel the certain types of reishin that resonated with my spirit and now I can do this... well, as you see I still need more practice. I'm still working out what I can do."

"So then... no Foresworn?" Enki asked, just to make sure.

"What's a Foresworn?" Yuka asked. "I've never heard of them."

"They usually wear skins, or leather armor, but when they're recruiting they look normal enough," Shouryuu said shortly. He had a long series of scores to settle with the group.

"Basically," Enki said. "They're a cult that has a problem with the rest of the world living under the rule of Tentei in Heaven and they want to overturn the system. They have a nasty habit of collecting Kaikyaku and offering them bargains, kinda like the last Kou-ou did to you. They offer a person power and magic and the ability to understand the words around them but in the end the bargain turns on the one who makes it."

"Ah, a devils bargain," Yuka said, nodding in understanding. "No, no-one offered me any such thing, this just sort of... happened. But I do have my suspicions about it too, nothing bad, but I think an outside power has decided I'd be useful. Some kind of powerful spirit being. She showed up in my meditation and offered me advice. It's because of her or it that I was able to clear up my fuuchi."

Shouryuu digested her words for a long moment, turning them over and over in his mind. Meanwhile Enki said

"I don't think you're in any real danger, at least not of turning into a merge-beast or half-youma, but all the same, you should be careful, power like this doesn't come without a price."

"If it's to help Kaname I'm willing to pay it, whatever it is," Yuka said staunchly.

"You should really be more careful with what you say," Enki cautioned solemnly. "This world is crawling with Gods, Immortals and Divine Spirits, and one can never be certain of Who or What might be listening and how They plan to make use of your words."

"So, Wind, Metal and Wood answer to you," Shouryuu said, changing the subject a little. "Why not Water or Fire or Earth?"

"I have no affinity for Water at all," Yuka replied after a short pause to think about it. "Earth's lesser Disciplines of Wood and Metal answer to me, but I think they're attracted to the warrior aspect of my character, so I doubt the greater aspect of that element will ever resonate. It requires too much patience and steadiness to suit me I think, and as for Fire... well, it's _there_, but it's a proud element and will not bow its head to anyone less than its equal. I would have to become a far, far greater person than I am now to handle Fire's reishin."

"And that blurring thing you did earlier?" he questioned.

Yuka explained about internal abilities and external abilities and the difference in power they required. She was apparently still working out what she was capable of.

"But there's one thing that strikes me as being kind of odd about all of this," Yuka said at the end of it.

"Only one?" Shouryuu said, bushy eyebrows raised.

"I'm not even from this world, how is it I can do the things with the reishin _at all_? Shouldn't there be some sort of, I dunno, fundamental incompatibility in my physical makeup that this world would reject or something?"

"Well, you're close," En-ou said with a nod. "And generally speaking you're right, this world has a subtle rejection to those who are alien to it woven into its fabric somehow. I believe it's part of the way that Tentei keeps influence from unknown outsiders to the bare minimum. Every person born this world does so directly through the grace of Tentei, so part of their very essence is formed to only react to the essence of this world in certain ways. A normal person of this world cannot be converted into a merge-creature, also cannot interact with reishin, we're fundamentally incapable of it, it is part of our very being. A kaikyaku, on the other hand is, I think, something of a blank slate, a way of getting around Tentei's Will."

"If that's true, then why couldn't I work my voodoo magic the last time I was here, it would have saved a lot of trouble, or at least kept me out of it... possibly."

"I note you said possibly," Shouryuu said dryly. "As to the first, there has to be a catalyst. The foresworn perform a ritual where they infuse the heart of a youma, I don't actually know how, into a kaikyaku's body and that kaikyaku gains the ability to channel the reishin that react to that particular youma. As for you, well, it seems Someone or Something has taken an interest in you and it doesn't seem to be harmful. Enki has said he hasn't sensed any Taint on you, so for now we'll call it a benefit."

"Has there ever been anyone else like me?" Yuka asked curiously.

"Not..." Shouryuu said slowly. "Not that I know of. There are beings in this world that blur the lines between Mortal and Divine-"

"And you're one of them, I understand," Yuka pointed out.

"I'm only one step down from the Big Chief himself as long as I continue to rule in accordance with Heaven's Law," Shouryuu replied. "My sagehood grants me quasi-immortality as long as I play by the rules, and there's not much that can kill me. However I can't manipulate, or even sense, the reishin like you describe. I've never met a being who can."

"We should consult with Genkun about it," Enki said. "She might know something. I know that the Nyosen on Mt. Hou have certain powers in order to protect the baby kirins but I've never seen them displayed."

"Hm, there's a thought," Shouryuu said. "You think that the Dowager Empress of the West might be involved in this?"

"Seioubo?" Enki said in surprise. "Well, I guess it's a possibility. She is the one who chooses the Nyosen and allows them to ascend Mt Hou to become sages, and Nyosen do have certain powers. Yuka, did you pray to Seioubo?"

"I don't even know who or what a seioubo is," Yuka said flatly. "Though my mind is throwing up a reference to peaches..."

"She a Grand Sage and lives on Mt. Ka in the Five Mountains," Enki said. "Though her status as a possible goddess always seems to be in question. She is the one who chooses the Nyosen and brings them to Mt. Hou."

"I think there's a legend on our world about the Seioubo," Yuka said, face brightening as the thought that was obviously bothering her came to the fore. "She's a Chinese goddess originally, and if I recall correctly she lived on a mountain in the west of china with a peach tree in her pavilion that grew peaches of immortality. Supposedly rulers sought her out to attain immortality but failed to do so."

"Or maybe she kicked them off her mountain for trying to play with her peaches," Shouryuu said with a lascivious waggle of his brows.

Yuka looked pointedly down at her bow.

"Regardless,"Enki said with a quelling look at his king for flirting. "It's an avenue to look into. What are your plans?"

"I'm going to help Kaname," Yuka said.

Shouryuu's eyes narrowed a little bit and he pressed

"How do you plan to do so?"

"We'll see," she evaded. "There should be a way that my new abilities might be useful. Kaname's king has to be here somewhere after all, and I think I can help."

"Don't do anything foolish," Enki warned her. "I know you like to leap into things, but try to look before you leap this time."

"I'll try," she promised.

:_I don't trust that answer one bit_,: Shouryuu thought to himself. :_She doesn't seem the sort to let things lie quiet when she can go stirring them up to derive a possible advantage from them._:

He didn't like leaving things the way they were, it seemed like a recipe for something drastic to happen to the girl. He wouldn't call her shortsighted or stupid, but she possessed all the one-sighted focus of a hunting falcon, as though all that existed in the world was its prey, and she would focus on that to the exclusion of everything else around her, including her own life and safety. It was something Youko had worried about with the girl and he could see that the lady-empress was not far off on that.

:_Coupled with that is the fact that the last time she was in this world she went through dangerous and serious ordeals that could have ended a lot worse for her and didn't, I think that the fact that she feels she's learned her lesson is just going to make her over confident rather than more cautious. The younglings like this one are always so viscerally certain of their own immortality after all._:

There were times when he really felt **old**.

"For now, I'd recommend you keep practicing with your abilities," Shouryuu advised. "If there's a Power that's taken enough interest in you to grant you the power to do something, then rather than look a gift horse in the mouth you should turn all that energy you have towards honing your edge so that when the time comes to move, you'll be ready."

"I don't need you to tell me that," Yuka said with dignity, then hesitated a moment and with a slightly more subdued tone, as though realizing she'd been rude and offering a silent apology she added

"But thank you for your advice. I'll work hard. Hey, if you see Youko tell her I said not to worry about me. I'll help kaname."

"Will do, just don't do anything _drastic_," Shouryuu cautioned her again.

He was less than reassured to see that there was a shuttered, secretive look to her face and he left the feild with the feeling that the girl was already up to something.

:_I hope that that **something** she's up to doesn't land her up to her eyebrows in trouble before I can get things moving_,: he thought with an internal headshake.

He was half tempted to ask Enki to stay there and keep things from getting out of hand but that island was no safe place for his kirin to be. he'd have to hope that thing remained calm for the time being, though he knew from personal experience that such a thing was very unlikely.

"I'm going to head to Mt Hou and consult with Genkun," Enki said, changing forms.

"And I'll head to Kei to tell Youko what I've found out, maybe we'll be able to come up with something that'll keep this mess from getting any worse."

Enki inclined his white head in reply and trotted off into the sky while Shouryuu went to find his suuguu Tama and head back across the Void Sea.

* * *

**Let's hear it for a king of En cameo! He's always sticking his nose into places they rightly shouldn't be, and I think he rather blends in well here. Please leave a note to tell me what you think!  
**


	27. Book I: Path of Sorrows: Chapter 26

Kaname was currently glued to the side of Eishou-dono and some old court official that they had dug up. They had him resuming his own education in the duties of the office of Taiho, an education had been sadly truncated by his long absence. Yuka was in the woods near the round meadow, a stream rushed over stones with a small waterfall nearby. She had fetched from the fort earlier two small short swords (more like long-knives) and her escrima sticks, a wooden bow and quiver of arrows different from her own, with the vague notion of using them to do some training with her reishin.

:I know already that my metl and wood reishin resonate with the part of me that can't ever seem to walk away from a good fight, or remain inactive when there's something to be done,: Yuka thought as she reached into the sack she'd brought with her and pulled out the swords in their leather scabbards.

For the first time since Youko had snapped the scimitar that the King of Kou had given her for her training with him, Yuka picked up a real sword.

"Oh!" she gasped, staring at the blade in her hand.

Until that moment, Yuka hadn't actually tried to _use_ her metal reishin for anything other than just getting a vague sense of where the metal worn by soldiers and used in their own weapons was positioned relative to her own self. The reishin she seemed to use the most was her wind reishin, simply because the abilities granted to her were most beneficial. The wind reishin was capricious and difficult to cajole into to obeying her and very much disinclined to manifest itself in any form. She had assumed that all of her reishin were like that since she hadn't really gotten much of an opportunity to practice with them and learn otherwise. She could tell just by the way the metal felt in her hand that her assumption had been erroneous.

:_It feels so alive in my hands_!: Yuka marveled. And that was just with her reishin in passive mode, she wondered what it would feel like when she actively engaged her reishin and resonated with the metal reishin in the blade.

Yuka called up her own spiritual energy and used it to bring her metal reishin to the fore then turned her concentration onto the dull, pot-metal practice blade in her hand. The "sword" had not been created to be used as a serious weapon, therefore the smith who had forged it had done the bare minimum with regards to refining the quality of the metal and making it balanced. The tang was even slightly off-center. But when she sank her concentration into the blade she discovered something interesting about metal reishin as opposed to wind reishin... they were _cooperative_. The reishin in the blade resonated easily with her own reishin, and in their case having even a small amount of power greater than what they possessed was enough to make them "bow" to her own reishin.

:_No, that's not quite it. Metal, by its nature is both pliable and rigid. These metal reishin **want** to be shaped_!: she realized.

She started out slow, getting a _feel_ for the whole length of the blade just by running her open palm down along the flat of the blade. Then she _pushed_ her will (or maybe it was part of her spirit) into the sword. The tiny, bell-like voice of the sword's reishin sounded like a million tiny little voices all in chorus, like a digitized singer. Slowly, she started to _change_ the sword, pulling the metal in tighter and getting rid of the loose garbage-like bits, making the metal purer and stronger. The song of the blade sharpened, taking on a slightly different tone. Then she flattened it (which looked really weird at first, sort of like the bending spoon scene from The Matrix) into a sheet and folded it back and forth and back and forth in on itself. It was easier than shaping clay, though of course Yuka was already starting to feel the effects of using her spiritual power again even after eating a large breakfast to get her strength back up. The tang straightened and flowed true down the length and most of the width of the blade. Yuka's last task was to shape the metal into its final form. She decided against the scimitar again (though that was the form of sword she was most comfortable with) and went with a slightly hour-glass shaped gladiatorial-style shortblade.

When she pulled her reishin out of the blade and tested its heft and balance, Yuka could feel immediately the difference in comparison to the other blade. The blade felt light, due to its now perfect balance, and the song of it was clear and pure.

:_I need a drink of water though_!: she thought, the task of using even a small amount of her spiritual power when she wasn't used to it left her famished and weak-kneed, like she'd been swimming all day.

"So I guess, even if you're cooperative," she mused aloud to the reishin in the blade (though she knew they wouldn't hear or understand her). "It still takes spiritual power to use my own reishin to make you bow to me will and shape the metal."

Shaping metal with her own spiritual power would have been difficult to put into words if she were asked to describe it. Her metal reishin was part of her, like her own hands were, and just as a person would have known how to apply pressure and use the sensation of touch, and the feel of heat and cold to discern an object or shape clay, Yuka knew how to call up her inner reishin. The reishin that already existed in the other metal felt foreign from her own reishin, but when she called up her metal reishin and focused on the metal of the sword it felt like those reishin became lesser parts of her own, a little like clothing on her body.

Until a few days ago, she would not have known how to focus her spiritual energy, but she the felt the individual differences of each reishin within her melded with her soul and she could sort of call them up. Yuka closed her eyes for a long moment and just enjoyed the feel of the sunshine on her face and the breeze pressing against her cheek and the scent of the wood around her...

"The wind reishin already had its workout this morning, and metal feels like it needs a short rest, so I guess I try out the wood reishin now," she said to herself.

Out of the three of them, she knew least what to expect from that one. Wood was the one who had resonated with the quiet, bookish part of her soul, it was a reishin of still forests and gently swaying trees. In truth, Yuka was a little surprised that this reishin was one of her major powers; she considered herself more of a doer than a scholar. True, she loved to read books but...

:_Guess it sort of makes some sense,_: she thought, reconsidering.

She had only been looking at her reishin from the perspective of having a useful skill to fight with, but, pugnacious as Yuka often was, there was more to her than a good fight, there were times she liked to hide away from the world and curl up with a good book too. The thought of hiding reminded Yuka of the way she could appear and disappear when she was out in the woods by resonating with the feel of the wood around her. She turned her focus inward, calling the wood reishin out to the fore. She took a moment to adjust to the peculiar sensation of melding more fully with it, and then _Listened_ with it.

:_Wood reishin are very very very different from wind and metal_!: Yuka thought to herself, extremely shocked by the "sound" she heard and felt around her.

She realized why that understanding was so surprising when she felt the difference in the sound of the wood from her escrima sticks and the sound of a small tree nearby. Living in the fort as she had been, Yuka had only really heard the dull, distant, dead notes of the wispy remains of the wood reishin that had once been part of the wood that had made up the objects that surrounded her, the wood of the floor-slats, the pillars of the house, the woven grass of the tatami mats, the fibres of the cloth, the shafts of the weapons... all of them had once been part of a great, vital reishin. Unlike the other elements, wood was a reishin that was living, not abiotic like wind or metal or water. The voice of the wood sounded exactly like the sigh of the wind through the trees, a sursuration of individual movements all moving together to make an a single sound indistinguishable. The sound of the "wood" that surrounded her in the walls of the fort sounded empty and sad compared to this great vital thing. Yuka opened her reishin's "ears" to the green word.

She found herself staring up at the vast blue sky filtered by the leaves in the trees overhead and at first wasn't quite sure how she'd gotten there. The ringing punding in her head that set in a moment later told her how. She had opened herself up a little too widely to the song of the wood. She heard every the tinkling notes of every blade of grass, the basso gong of the mighty oak, the pitchy murmer of the pines, the violin whine of the vines growing over the rocks and trees. Each tree had its own reishin and those reishin were quasi aware, not in the same sense as a person or even a fairly smart beast, but they knew things... deep things; they knew the light of the sun and the voice of the wind, they knew the taste of the soil and where everything that resided in thier dominion lay. The sound of all of those voices talking at once had simply overwhelmed her.

:_So... got to work on focusing my ability to hear the wood_,: Yuka thought, drinking a deep draught of water to try to make her headache subside more quickly.

Her wood reishin was still foremost in her spiritual power so Yuka decided to try out another of its inherent abilities. She sighted the tree nearby and ran toward it, wind-hopping up to the first branch. She could feel the tense coil of its reishin thrumming under her hands, it shifted and moved ever so slightly, like a restive creature. The branch under her swayed and she could feel the springy coil. Yuka nudged, ever so slightly with her own reishin, and the branch, with its energy like a coiled spring, snapped up, launching her as easily as a springboard. She caught the next branch, looping herself up onto her feet on top of it then threw her weight downward and nudged the tree's reishin with her own on the upspring, launching her back up into the air.

:_Whoaah_!: she yelled in a half-panic as she reached the apex of her spring and missed the branch she'd been aiming for.

Yuka began to fall. She couldn't quite get her wind reishin around to slow her decent so in a blind trust she snapped out her wood reishin to the nearest plant and pulled hard. A vine of leaves snaked around her outstretched wrists, yanking on her arm and swinging her bodily to the right... where she crashed into the trunck of the tree.

She started another sharp descent and in another blind panic caught a branch and pushed it up on a recoil, sending her flying in a blind tumult she wasn't quite sure where. She smacked into another branch and her ears started ringing. Her painful descent was halted abruptly when she fell facedown on one of the solid lower branches of the tree, its trunk-like thickness digging deeply into her stomach.

:_Owie_...: she muttered as she pulled herself to rest in the crook between the branch and the trunk. :That went rather wrong, rather quickly. I wonder what went wrong...:

Yuka closed her eyes and felt the gentle sway of the tree she was resting in, the soft sursuration of the wind blowing through the leaves.

:_Oh... I think I see a little bit_,: Yuka thought a moment later.

The world comprised of the treetops was different from her usual world of solid unwavering objects and big open sky. This was a dynamic world, one that was always changing ever so slightly. If she wanted to move within this world, she needed to be able to move along with it. Yuka opened up her reishin sense and focused on hearing the voice of the tree beneath her. Instead of a sound it was more a feeling of resonance, like she felt the notes thumping through her, jangling along her skin until her sense of the tree unified with her sense of motion. It felt like her skin had eyes, she could feel every tiny shift, every miniscule movement. The reishin of the tree was more powerful than her own smaller, younger reishin and so it would not bow to it, but the ever-patient voice of the wood was willing to play, much like an adult indulging a puppy.

Yuka actually ran up the tree trunk as though she were one of the main actors in a matrial arts movie. Gravity wasn't an issue for her, the tree beneath her loaned her its strength. Yuka felt more flexible and agile as she pushed off from the trunk and ran along one of the tree's branches. She felt it's flexible wriggle on every one of her smaller steps and realized that her running movement was not well suited to accommodate the large, flexing movements of the tree. Instead, Yuka changed her gait to one that would have been more suited to a trampoline, larger springing hops that made better use of the recoil to move her around.

:_This is actually fun_!: Yuka thought to herself.

It seemed that in the Wood Reishin's case, the internal abilities were more useful than the external ones, for they increased her agility and her ability to sense the world around her as well as proving her chameleon-like camouflage abilities while inside the shelter of the wood. enhanced by the use of her wood reishin, to spring from branch to branch and then from tree to tree.

The world below her seemed smaller and flatter and harder compared to the world of the tree tops. But her new wood sense told her when strangers enetered her territory. She reflexively camouflaged in and watched the intruders below her. She recognized a few of the soldiers from that morning, armed and bearing blunt weapons.

:_I wonder what they want_...: Yuka mused to herself, partly uncaring since there was no way they could find her much less catch her in the wild wood. it would have been even more impossible in a bamboo forest.

"...sure I saw her go this way," one of the soldiers said to one of the others.

:_Don't tell me they want revenge_,: Yuka scoffed.

"Are you sure about this?" his friend said uncertainly. "Eishou didn't look like he wanted her found and I'm sure that Ibuki has some kind of grudge against her. I don't know if these orders he gave are valid ones."

"Hey, we were just given a command by our superior," the first one said with a shrug in his voice. "If its an invalid command that's not our problem, let that guy take the heat for it if he deserves it."

Yuka snorted to herself.

:_Sucks to be them_,: she thought not entirely without sympathy for them; after all, they had no real choice in thier commanders. :_Now they're going to be stuck out here in the middle of the woods all day on a wild goose chase._:

Maybe she should be nice to them and give them something to do to keep from being bored.

:_That sound's like fun. Let's do that_,: Yuka thought with mischeivous amusement.

Yuka fell silently down from the branch she perched on, allowing the leaves to rustle in the tiny whirlwind she kicked up to soften her landing. The three young soldiers who had been sent to track her down turned to look at her but Yuka was still using her wood reishin to _ghost_.

"Must be just the wind," the lead soldier said.

Yuka snuck around him, picked up a small pebble and pinged it against his armor. The soldier whirled and drew his sword in a less than fluid motion. Clearly he had not been in military training for very long. Yuka wind-stepped over to another area and, still remaining hidden, pinged another guard with a pebble. The three soldiers immediately gathered in back to back and drew, clearly thinking themselves under attack. Yuka dropped her wood reishin's camouflage and stood silhouetted herself in a break in the trees.

"Looks like you found me," Yuka said. "But I'm a little bored and you look like you could use some practice, so how about we use each other to train? Here's the deal. There's a flagpole in the middle of the main obstacle course located at the center of the training compound. I'm going to make for it using all of my skill. You boys have to try and stop me from stealing your flag. If you manage it, I'll go along quietly like a good little girl. If I make it to the flag despite your interference you all have to leave me the hell alone."

"I'm not in any position to take deals," the lead soldier said, but he was smiling a little fiercely. "But thanks for telling me where to find you."

* * *

**Game On.**


	28. Book I: Path of Sorrows: Chapter 27

**A.N. Relevant or not, this chapter was pure fun to write!**

The lead soldier-in-training swung at her with his blunted pole. Despite her training against youma under the aegis of King Kou, and her duels against Youko, Yuka wasn't very experienced with fighting another person. She wind-hopped by instinct and guard number two darted around to smack her out of the air with his own pole. Unarmed and unarmored, Yuka saw stars, even though the attack had only clipped her. She crashed back down to the earth with a heavy thud that jarred her body, the poles of her opponents pointed at her threateningly.

"That was easier than we thought it'd be," one of the guards said to the other.

"Don't underestimate me!" Yuka snapped, irritated and frustrated that she had been so easily defeated. She wasn't accustomed to taking on multiple opponents.

She kipped up to her feet, knocking the poles to one side then wind-stepped out of range, heading for her stash of weapons and the nearby trees. She could feel the pursuit of the odd squad crashing through the undergrowth behind her even as the wind whipped at her hair with the speed of her passing.

Yuka, not wanting to try using an edged weapon in what amounted to practice, slid her escrima sticks into her sash at the lower part of her back, and grabbed the bow and the blunted arrows she had also brought to train with.

:_The training with the youma at the estate in Kou all took place with the scimitars, I don't have as much practice with a bow, comparatively speaking_.:

Yuka ran up a nearby tree-trunk and sprang over to the next tree, heading toward the bamboo forest at the edge of the round meadow. The wood was soon pierced by the shrill sound of a whistle shrieking through the air. Moments later, Yuka sensed via her wood-sense that more invaders had entered the wood nearby. Apparently her pursuers had decided to call up reserves for their little war-games.

:_No fair calling back-up_!: she thought in a put-out manner as she wind-hopped up into a tree and started racing along the branches. She was pleased to note that her instinct for knowing where to leap to make a good landing developed the more she used it, strangely, using her wood-reishin to resonate with the trees so that she could ghost actually sharpened her acuity when it came to sensing the wood around her. The sun was westering now, making clear sight difficult.

"Eeep!" she squeaked as an arrow thunked against the trunk of the tree she was currently in. Yuka pushed out with her wood-sense, trying to get a better track on her enemies. Simultaneously she increased her level of ghost, blending in seamlessly with the trees around her and bounced along the branch to the trunk. The movement of her passing still jostled the leaves and another arrow hit the branch she was on from a young soldier in traing hoping to make a lucky shot. Yuka squirreled farther up the trunk and out onto another branch where she sprung upwards to catch another branch and flip up onto it. Another arrow thunked into the trunk near her and Yuka was puzzled for a moment, knowing that they couldn't see her. When more arrows arched nearby in places where she definitely was _not_, Yuka understood; they could not see her, but they knew her general vicinity and they were tracking her by the sound of her movements and firing at will, hoping to land a lucky shot.

:_Should I stay still and not give my presence away to observe the enemy, continue running, or return fire with my own arrows_?: Yuka mused to herself.

If she fired an arrow it might give away her position...

:_Meh, the point of this excersize is to learn, whats a learning experience without a few risks_?:

Yuka pulled out her new bow made of wood with wood twine and sent her wood reishin into it, getting a real feel for it, enhancing its strength and flexibility and sort of melding her spiritual essence with it. She pulled out an arrow and nocked it, feeling the hollow note of the half-reishin within the arrow seem to hum with excitement. Taking a deep breath, Yuka sighted along the arrow as she'd been briefly taught.

:Huh? What's this?: Yuka wondered, eyes widening in surprise.

When she sighted her eye along the arrow, the world faded to grey, with her possible targets clearly delineated in glowing red.

:_Useful_,: she thought. :_I think the reishin of the wood are helping me somehow. I can feel the flexible tension and humming excitement in the bow, it's like it wants to find its target_.:

When she pointed her arrow and started to pull back on the bowstring a wide circle of orange appeared. It was slightly off-center on the person she'd sighted, until Yuka adjusted her aim slightly. As she pulled back the arrow in the bow further, the circle shrank, zeroing in until it pinpointed on target. Yuka released, and the arrow flew straight and true, directly at the place she had aimed for.

:_Wow! Let's hear it for my reishin-awesomeness_!: she thought, elated as the blunted arrow struck perfectly at her target.

She pulled out another arrow, amused at the novelty of sighting in and hitting something so easily and selected another target to hit. Her wood reishin murmured a warning trill along her inner senses as her nominal enemies closed in on her tree-top position. Yuka pushed down on the branch and sprang out of the way then hop-ran along the springy bough she'd landed on, circling her prey. She paused for a moment, ducking behind a tree trunk, to pull out another arrow, find another target and hit it.

"Hey!" Yuka yelled in outrage a moment later as she observed that the target she had hit with what would have been a critical shot if her arrows had had tips on them kept on attacking her.

"That's against the rules! I just critted you, you're supposed to be out!" she yelled at him.

Her pursuant laughed a little. Yuka felt steamed about it. She wasn't being serious and she wasn't trying to hurt anyone, she just wanted to get better and get a little practical experience but these guys weren't playing nice.

:_Well fine_,: she grumbled to herself. :_They're just going to be that much more embarrassed when I take their flag._:

Yuka headed out, bouncing along tree tops and sighting an enemy here and there, and sort of wishing she had dipped her arrows in paint beforehand. Her lungs were starting to ache and burn however, despite what she'd been through and the extra classes she'd taken in her own world, Yuka was still a mostly ordinary school girl. The young men and women following her all got up before dawn to run for a mile and do PT before breakfast. Yuka's idea of morning excersize was running out to get the mail before she put on her make-up instead of after. Her body simply didn't have the same endurance and stamina that these trainee's had been able to build up.

:_Just mean's I'll have to win this one before my endurance runs out_,: she told herself as she tried not to pant.

The use of her reishin was a constant drain on her energy, moreso than the running and even though she was using the reishin-granted abilities mostly internally (for sensing the arrows and the enemy troop movements within the wood) Yuka was _still_ using them and it took it out of her.

The bamboo forest was straight ahead and Yuka melted into it with a feeling of relief. Surrounded by so much greenery all moving this way and that in the wind, it would be next to impossible for her enemy to track her by her movements. She found a particularly thick patch of it and threw herself down to catch her breath. She could taste the sickly-sweet taste of adrenaline in the back of her mouth and the sting of the bitter made her spit a few times to get rid of it.

:_Well now what_?: she wondered to herself as she felt her pursuants enter the wood behind her.

They'd finally gotten smart, they had separated into pairs and were searching in a pattern, each team either covering an area or remaining stationary to cover the teams running a search pattern. With the targets spread out the way they were and paired as they were...

:_I can pick them off one by one, but when I take down a target its partner is alert to my position and ready to fire, then all the others can zero in to where I'm at,_: Yuka realized quickly.

If she attacked one, the teams nearby would center in and mob her.

:_Think think_!: she ordered herself.

Normally, having targets spread out like that would be a good thing, each particular unit being weaker and more easily picked off, but in this case they were all working in tandem to detect her. She did have to applaud the ringleader on his strategy.

:_An organized enemy is a dangerous enemy_,: she thought to herself as she listened to the wood and felt thier search pattern slowly but surely start to close in on her.

Sowing some chaos sounded like a great idea. That was something she rather specialized in. Yuka smiled a little...

"Sir! I found her, she's right over here!" Yuka called out in her best impersonation of a soldier, still ghosting along in camouflage.

She wind-stepped over to the nearest stationary pair, leapt up onto the bamboo nearest them and smacked them both with the recoil (trying hard not to laugh as they ate leaves). Using the momentary and painful distraction, Yuka flashed in and took them both down with a double critical strike using her escrima sticks in place of blades and tying them together with their own capturing cords. She paused for a moment to sight in and shoot a nearby pair, then wind-stepped out of there to another location, melding in with the greenery. The pairs nearest her were all concentration on the spot where she had just been, and not expecting it when she attacked them.

:_Four pairs down_,: Yuka thought optimistically as she flash-stepped away from her previous position. :_Not doing too badly, though I'm still no-where near the meadow._:

She worked her way around along the outside edge of the perimeter that the enemy commander had put up, picking off teams here and there with both physical take-downs and arrows then moving on before her enemy could close in on her. She had several close calls when one team or another either managed to guess at her next location and were waiting for her to move there or she didn't move on fast enough.

That was when their commander caught on to her idea and changed strategies. The pairs all converged in a line between her and the edge of the forest, arrows out and waiting for her slightest movement. Yuka narrowed her eyes irritatedly.

:_So much for **that** brilliant strategy_,: she thought.

She was going to have to run the blockade. There was no other way around it.

:_They'll be expecting me to run straight at them, and my new motto is never take a direct route when there is an indirect one available. It'll probably keep me alive a lot longer_.:

Yuka wind-stepped up the nearest bamboo, feeling it flex and sway beneath her. Before it could bend enough to give away her position to her enemy, Yuka quickly wind-hopped to the next stalk, then moved on to the next and the next, never staying in one place long enough for the bend of the bamboo to betray her position. Yuka discovered the slight weakness to her wood camoflage, it only worked when she was in direct physical contact with the wood; i.e. if she was touching the grass or the bamboo or some physical part of the forest, when she was in the air between trees, her body could be seen briefly.

:But only very briefly,: she assured herself.

She made it to within ten feet of the blockade at the edge of the wood without being detected, possibly partly because of the growing dimness as the sun headed toward setting, bathing the bamboo in honey-gold. Sadly, someone in the lead at the edge of the blockade line spotted her shadow up in the trees and cried a warning, the front line unleashed their arrows at her position and she was forced to wind-hop quickly to the right. Yuka changed her advance path from straightforward to erratic, bounding back and forth among the leafy stalk-tops in an unpredictable pattern. The air became alive with streaking arrows as people tried to lock onto her position and hit her.

:_Enough of this! All or nothing_!: she deided as she closed in on the gap.

Within five feet of the line Yuka abruptly dropped down from her tree-top position into the undergrowth and wind-stepped directly at the middle of the blockade. She blurred into a divide down the center and the commander called for them to hold thier fire lest they hit one another.

"Heh, friendly fire isn't, eh boys?" Yuka taunted as she flew past them toward the edge of the forest. "See you all at my victory dance!"

She made it to the meadow and melded in with the tall growing grass, flash-hopping from boulder to boulder, since they littered the fields anyway.

:_Don't know how much longer I can keep this up_!:

Her body was pouring down sweat, her burning lungs panted heavily as she tried to take in enough air to keep her momentum up. She felt like she was going to throw up. When she judged she had put enough distance between her and her pursuers Yuka dropped out of wind-step and ran hell-for-leather toward the training complex wall. She wind-leaped over it, pausing at the top of the wall to scout around and get her bearings.

:_To the left_,: she thought as she oriented her estimated current position with the rough map inside her head.

Yuka ran along the top of the wall and hid in the shadow of an arrow-tower while her pursuants poured in through the nearby east gate.

:_Damn them, just **look** at them!_: Yuka thought in raw envy as they came double-timing it through the gate, fully armed and armored, looking fresh as daisies, like they hadn't just ran their asses halfway across the damn island!

She watched them make straight for the central courtyard with it's obstacle course and central flagpole. The group commander ordered men stationed at all the high points on the course and the rest to surround the goal.

Yuka examined the enemy positions and grumbled internally as the young man (not much older than Yuka herself was in fact) reported the impromptu military game to one of the local commanders who had popped his head out to demand what was going on. Naturally, this roused everyone else and they came out in droves, ringing the courtyard to witness the spectacle.

:_So much the better, I'm always down for delivering a little public humiliation_,: Yuka smiled, trying to boost her confidence.

The odds were not in her favor at all. There were a lot of enemy soldiers, expecting her to move on thier position, ready and waiting for her, and she was on her last legs.

:_I kinda want to stop right here and go to sleep_,: she panted to herself, resisting the urge to slide down the wall to a sitting position and closing her eyes only be sheer force of will.

Yuka pulled out her bow and checked to see how many blunted arrows she had left.

:_Seven. Gotta make them count_,: she told herself.

:_Take out the archers at the high positions first, then_...:

The commander of the team had also stationed fighters along certain points of the obstacle course. She had to find a weak point that would let her hopefully sneak by with a minimum of confrontation.

:_I can't camouflage-in on this course, there's no wood for my wood-reishin to work with_,: Yuka thought glumly. :_So I'm just going to have to be **fast**_.:

The problem with that was _fast_, in her book meant reishin, and using reishin at this point was a bit risky because she wasn't quite sure what her threshold actually was.

:_But that's part of what I'm trying to find out_,: she told herself, trying to ignore her already weak knees.

:_Right, not getting any more victorious just sitting here. I'll go for that weak point along the bridge, there's only one guard along it, and if I get rid of the archers manning the high points above him, I should be able to take him down and rush at the goal_.:

She'd need something to cover her back from arrows while she climbed the pole but that guard on the bridge had a nice convenient shield on his arm she could make excellent use of.

Yuka took one last bracing breath to fortify herself and then wind-hopped over the roofs to the rooftop adjacent to the central courtyard and hid in the shadow of a nearby chimney. She pulled out her arrows and tested her bow, then began sighting in and taking down enemies. Each shot was a critical. One of the soldiers tried to ignore the "wound" but was quickly booed down with "bad form!" from his fellows, who knew the rules of engagement for military excersizes.

Yuka could now feel every last little tiny drain on her resources when she used her reishin. Six shots were fired and all six targets were down. Yuka wind-leaped onto the back of her target and took him down from behind, just barely managing to strip him of his sheild to block the arrows coming in from the left... and used her enemy's body as a meat-shield to block the arrows coming from her right.

"That's _so_ not fair!" her victim informed her as his armor was pincushioned with the shafts of his allies.

Yuka laughed and commiserated

"Tough break."

Then shoved him to one side as she pelted forward to the target position at a dead run, sliding the shield by its straps onto her back as she went. The leather was harder to work with than she had anticipated and she almost got tangled up in it, which would have been embarrassing, but managed to get herself sorted just in time to leapfrog over her first enemy.

:_And the flagpole is wood_!: she exulted as she pulled a final burst of strength from her wood reishin and started pulling herself up it quickly. Arrows flew at her from all directions, the pole protected her front and the shield protected her back, all Yuka had to worry about were the arrows coming from the sides and her wood reishin told her the positions of the incoming missiles in just enough time to dodge or shield against them.

"Hold fire!" the commander of the team (she still didn't know his name) called. Yuka was dismayed a moment later to sense his presence pursuing her right up the pole.

Her strength was lagging and she was slowing down, she could feel it. Yuka forced her arms to grip and pull harder on the pole to bring her to the bit of fabric that wavered tauntingly far away at the top.

"Gotcha!" the young man yelled triumphantly as he caught her by the ankle. Yuka kicked to loosen his grip but he stuck like a burr. She tried again and he loosened but did not let go, a third kick broke his grip but he continued to climb up after her.

:_Guess I'll have to get rid of him.:_

Yuka wrapped her legs around the pole and gripped with her thighs, pulled out her escrima sticks from the small of her back and let her torso drop until she was upside down and meeting her enemy face to face... after a fashion. The young man gripped onto the cord of the flagpole and brought out his own blunted weapon with his other hand, meeting her first swing and then the follow-up with two expert blocks.

The crowd below went ape-shit. She wasn't sure precisely who they were cheering for but her guess was the young commander. Yuka blocked a swing from his own weapon and countered with her off-hand weapon. It was an entirely new experience fighting upside down, she swung in figure eights furiously and could see that the young man was having difficulties keeping up, especially since he had only one weapon and she had two. He could not gain an advantage while they were engaged, but he was skilled and she wasn't going anywhere until she'd gotten rid of him. They both knew that, which put them at something of an impasse. Yuka's strength however was quickly running out.

:_Aha_!: she thought exultantly as she saw an advantage.

His position was rooted in his grip in the flag-cord, not on the actual pole itself.

Yuka chucked her off-hand weapon at him to distract him and swiftly pulled out the sole blade in her possession and sawed quickly at the rope. The young man, distracted, missed her movement and actually fell a quarter of the way down the pole before he stopped himself with his grip.

:_Oooh! Sit-up from **hell**! I'm going to be feeling that one in the morning_...:

Yuka resumed her climb. Her arms were leaden and she could barely hang on much less pull herself up. Exhaustion had hit her like a wave as her strength petered out. Her whole body felt like it had been covered by ten pound weights and they dragged at her, pulling her back down to the earth. She didn't dare augment her strength by the use of the reishin anymore, knowing that if she did, she'd loose consciousness.

:_Just a little more_...: she told herself pulling herself up hand over hand by sheer stubborn will alone. Her strength was beginning to fail her but she didn't dare let go because if she did she'd fall.

One... Two... Three... heaving hand-lengths that seemed to sap her of all strength. The flag seemed to dance tantalizingly out of reach.

"A little more..." she gasped reaching up and pulling with all she had in her, her muscles felt like they groaned and strained with every pull Yuka could feel the quick climb of her opponent gaining on her. He was stronger than she and reasonably fresh for the fight. Still, she had the advantage of distance on him (if she could just get her body to move a little faster) and she hated to loose.

"C'mon Yuka! Pull! You can do it!" she heard Kaname's cry of encouragement below, while all the rest were cheering for their teammate. Yuka gave one last heave of her arms and pulled herself up, caught the flag and pulled it free.

"I... can't..." she panted and her vision greyed out.

Her arms lost their strength and she felt herself begin to plummet. Her state of quasi-awareness was jarred by the feel of someone grabbing onto her wrists and she swung, suspended in midair.

"Ya got guts, but sure an' yer a stupid, stubborn wench!" an unfamiliar voice from above her said.

"I just hate to loose," she murmured in utter exhaustion, her eyes closing on their own as the world faded out again.

"You'll fit right in around here," the voice said, she could hear the smile in it.

That was when the world blacked out.


	29. Book I: Path of Sorrows: Chapter 28

Before he headed out to see the Genkun, Rokuta wanted to visit with the young kirin he had met breifly and played such a trick on the last time they had met. The young boy had turned into a young man, and Rokuta felt a slight pang of envy at seeing the kirin who had been smaller than him the last time they had met grown so much taller than him. That envy was short-lived however, for when he drew nearer to his "younger brother" he could sense the sickness radiating off him. It was subtle, like the scent of raw meat when it just barely starts to go "off" but it was not the same scent of Taint that one found those who's spirits had been infected by youma.

:_Poor kid_,: Rokuta thought to himself. :_He's had to eat meat over in the other world_.:

His family, when he had had one, had been so poor that they hadn't been able to afford meat (or really, enough food to feed everyone for that matter) so he had not suffered the taint of meat when he had lived in the other world. In the modern culture that had supplanted the world that Rokuta had known and grew up, in meat was a regular part of the diet, though there were a number of people who chose to renounce it for either health or moral reasons. It seemed that the parents of the boy he had been over in the otherworld would not let thier son take up the vegetarian lifestyle. The taint of meat was pervasive in Taiki, but the longer he stayed in his proper world and ate only foods that were fitting for a kirin, the meat-taint world gradually fade from him. That was not the greatest concern that Rokuta felt however...

:_I can't quite sense the kirin in him_!: Rokuta thought in deep concern that bordered on horror.

He could almost feel it there on the edge of his senses, the golden warm light that all of their kind could feel for the others, but it was so faint it was almost non-existent. A shiver of alarm and foreboding ran up his spine, like that feeling one got in dream when they could just feel that an otherwise ordinary dream was about to turn into a nightmare. Steeling himself, Rokuta looked closely at his poor friend's forehead. The point that _should_ have been a brilliant sunlight-glow was instead a sickly-pale point of light.

:_He... he has no horn_!: Rokuta realized in horror. :_His horn is... it's **missing**_!:

He could not even begin to comprehend how anyone could possibly do such a thing. To amputate a kirin's horn it was just... it was _beyond_ sick and well past depraved, it was an evil so intense that there was no hope for saving that person's spirit. That was not to say that kirins had never been harmed or even killed in the past. Certainly that person who ran the "moonlight court" in Hou had killed Hourin (poor, defenseless Hourin) on the of pretext of her having chosen two bad rulers.

:But it's not exactly like she had much of a choice,: Rokuta thought to himself, still a little mad about it to this day.

After all, kirin's received the will of Heaven, if Heaven decreed that that person was the ruler than there was nothing for it, that person was the ruler. She was no more responsible for the fact that the rulers she'd chosen had quickly gone to the bad than rain was responsible for the fact that it flooded rivers. That was like complaining that a rainstorm just happened to rain on you.

:_But with Hourin, they killed her, they didn't... they didn't commit this atrocity and then leave her alive_!:

It made no sense any way Rokuta looked at it. The mere idea of Rokuta being separated from his horn made him almost want to run directly to his kings side and possibly hide himself right under the throne.

:_Why would they leave him alive_?: Rokuta thought, working his way thought the horror of the situation. :_If the person that did this wanted a new king then, like in Hou, they would simply have slain Kouri and waited for the next tai kirin to grow on the sashinboku. Clearly the usurper does not want a new kirin because then the next king would oust him, so he kept Kouri alive but why take his horn? No-one would possibly buy a kirin's horn for any amount of money because surely the possessor of such a thing would incur the wrath of Heaven_.:

Rokuta didn't quite understand why the person that had done this terrible thing hadn't been struck by lightning or something.

"I need to get to Mt Hou and soon," he decided. "Genkun needs to hear about this."

If there were any being on the face of this world that would know what to do about a kirin being separated from thier horn, she would.

* * *

Yuka lost a significant slice of time and found herself laid out on a futon in what was clearly a medical facility, Kaname sitting next to her, looking on worriedly. Her head and stomach both throbbed with hunger and her throat was parched.

"I know you like to win Yuka, but you take things too far," he scolded her when he saw her eyes open. "It's not good for you to push yourself so hard so quickly."

"Did I win?" she asked him.

"Eishou declared it a draw, since you did technically reach your goal but lost consciousness before you could secure it. He wants to see to your training in turning you abilities into an advantage for Tai. I told him I'd think about it, but not until after you've recovered."

"I just need some water and about ten bowls of rice."

"Speaking of water..." Kaname said, handing her a small bottle. It felt cold to the touch.

"Oh, thanks but I was thinking a little _more_ than that," Yuka said. She was ragingly thirsty after exerting her reishin the way she had.

"Just drink it," he muttered, face flushing a little. Yuka shrugged.

The water tingled coolly all the way down her with an icy-hot feeling that expanded out from her stomach to every part of her, revitalizing her and flooding her with relief and energy. Her reishin, formerly quite as tired as she was, perked right up and felt as good as new. Yuka sat up straighter, more than ready for that rice.

"Wow!" she exclaimed. "That's the _stuff!_ What was that?"

"Sage's water," Kaname informed her. "It's very rare so don't go counting on it. You have to learn to be more careful when you use your reishin."

"I will, part of this excersize was so I could learn my limits and where I need to improve."

"Sheesh... you sound like Gyo- nevermind," he said quickly.

Yuka smiled over at him and said

"Time to feed my reishin-babies. Bring on the food!"

Kaname sighed a little.

"You're the living end, you know that?" he said, shaking his head a little.

Kaname did indeed have a small pot of rice waiting nearby for when she inevitably got hungry. He held out a full bowl but when Yuka reached for it he held it back.

"I want your word you won't pull anymore dangerous stunts like this, they could have mistaken your intent and actually hurt you by accident."

"Well I could say so, but I'd be lying. How about this... I'll take a day off to rest."

"A week," Kaname countered.

"Overkill," Yuka scoffed. "Two days, and I'll even throw in a promise not to antagonize people needlessly."

"I'd say great, but I often wonder about what your definition of needful is," Kaname replied. "Three days grace and if you comport yourself well, we can talk about that _thing_ we talked about."

"You mean you'll let me do it?" Yuka said, perking up.

"Eishou and the others... they don't understand," Kaname said quietly. "They look at military time tables and talk about supply lines and raising defenses like we have all the time in the world. But something deep within me is stirring. Something bad is going to happen. I can feel it hovering over me, like a stormwind gathering in the air. I know deep in my bones that time is running out, I'm not sure how or why, but I can feel it. I don't think that the gifts you've been given were entirely an accident, I think you've been given this for a reason, and I believe you can find my Gyousou-sama. We need him, Tai needs him, to stop the storm that's coming."

"You got it, Kaname," Yuka said, warmed and elated by his trust in her, and even more happy to know that that trust would now not be misplaced. "I'm here to help you any way I can. Just give me a few days to buff up my reishin and get some experience in real fighting."

"A few days after the rest we just agreed upon," he corrected.

"I'll take it easier," was all Yuka said, as she started in on her third bowl. "You should agree to Eishou's wish, training like that could come in handy elsewhere." A small, secretive smile danced at the edges of her mouth.

The two of them shared a long speaking look, a silent compact made between them.

* * *

It had been some time indeed since he had journeyed to Mt hou to visit with the High Oracle of the Jasper Mist, Mistress of Shadow Gyoukuyou and Rokuta felt the same feeling of peace and nostalgia he always felt when he set foot (or in this case hoof, since he was currently in his kirin form) on the mountain top. He stepped over to one of the open-sided buildings that the nyosen kept stocked with clothing for visiting kirin's an pulled on a hou in his size. A small group of passing nyosen, on their way to air out their silks, greeted him delightedly.

"How's the soon-to-be Lord of Mount Hou?" he asked curiously when they paused to chat.

Rokuta referred to the as-yet unhatched kouka, the ranka of kou and the baby kirin that dwelled within. As soon as the kirin hatched from its ranka, it would become the new lord of Mt Hou.

It was yet another of the many pies that he and his king had a finger in. While affairs in Kou did not affect En directly (being on the other side of Kei) Shouryuu had his nose in everyone's business. Rokuta was keeping an eye on the ranka growing on the sashinboku, hoping that there would be no world storm to cause trouble this time.

"The ranka's guardian has appeared, it's a bird-lion-woman cross, the old woman says it's most auspicious."

"I think she says that about every haku to come out of the undercave," Rokuta said dryly. "But that's good. If there's a guardian, that means the ranka will hatch soon hopefully."

"We nyosen are keeping the great tree under constant watch," one of the ladies said with a note of pride, as though no pernicious world storm would dare try to slip past them on their watch.

"That's good," Rokuta replied with a nod of farewell as he continued on his way to the tea garden nearer the summit where he knew he would likely find the Genkun at this time of day.

To his surprise when he reached the lovely tea garden of Genkun, she already had a visitor.

"Sorry for intruding," Rokuta called cheerily on his way in though out of respect for the Genkun he did bow politely.

Ryuuki, the kirin of Ryuu, rose and bowed to his fellow kirin and Genkun, the Mistress of Shadows, gestured that the kirin of En could be seated. He did so and she poured him a cup of tea.

"You were saying Ryuuki," she replied, turning her attention to the other kirin and picking up on the conversation that Rokuta had clearly interrupted.

"The movements of the Foresworn in Ryuu have been getting more and more bold lately. They've even attacked some of the estates of the oldest noble families. I believe they are looking for the sacred relics..."

To Rokuta's surprise, the Genkun nodded, as though this were merely to be expected. though such tidings were news to him, his king kept a close eye on the foresworn in En and as a consequence thier movements were greatly curtailed. The news that the Foresworn were seeking the Sacred Relics of Ryuu was good news for no kingdom. Each kingdom in the Twelve kingdoms had them and they were all supposed to be different. They were not the same as celestial weapons like the Youko's Suiguutou, nor were they like her healing stone the hekisoujo which was supposed to have been a blessing bestowed upon the crown of Kei by Tentei, the Sacred Relics were supposedly objects of mysterious power left over from the Sundering, when Tentei remade the world. In many kingdoms, the top twelve noble families each guarded a sacred relic, but in En all of the sacred relics had been lost during the time of the Owl King when the kingdom was razed to the ground. In the five hundred years that had passed between then and now, his king had only managed to locate three out of the twelve sacred relics of En. Rokuta knew his king always worried about what would happen if one of those powerful relics fell into the wrong hands, such as the hands of the Foresworn for example, who, for mysterious reasons, sought them out.

"I have consulted with the The Dowager Empress of the West Seioubo on the matter and she has given me a dire warning to impart to you both," Genkun said seriously.

"How did she know I was coming here? I only just decided to to travel here yesterday," Rokuta said, and winced, knowing that he sounded like an idiot.

"She is Seioubo," Genkun said with a slight shrug.

"What is the warning?" Ryuuki asked.

"The Foresworn are not merely a minor threat," Genkun said seriously. "For every Law there is a loophole. If there are certain conditions met they could tear down the sky. The Pearl is in danger, the Kings must guard the Gates."

"How?" Ryuuki asked, looking alarmed.

Rokuta tried not to show how taken aback he was, first by the very fact that Seioubo was so plainspoken. That being had never once, in all of the time he had been the kirin of En, spoken so directly. On the exceedingly rare times that the Seioubo ever involved herself in something she usually couched her "help" in some form of riddle or even a haiku. It must be a truly important or potentially dire situation for Sieoubo to be so direct.

"I am not able to say, for that knowledge is hidden from me," Genkun replied. "But if I were to guess I would say that it has to do with their desire to restore what they call the True Balance. Those Sacred Relics must give them some way to do it. I believe this way has something to do with the Four God-Beasts and the Pearls that live at the heart of each of your kingdoms. Tell your kings to guard the gateways with their lives, that is all the advice I am able to give. I sense a dark storm gathering, we must all be ready for when it hits."

Ryuuki looked serious for a long moment then thanked the Genkun and hastily changed his form to return to his own land. Genkun then turned to Rokuta and refilled his tea.

"What news of Tai, young Rokuta?" Genkun asked pleasantly.

Once again, Rokuta wondered where and how she got her information, for his and his king's journey to examine Tai's little rebel base was top secret even among the inner circle at the court of En.

"Taiki's returned," he said heavily. "But he is..."

"Rokuta?" Genkun said, sounding concerned. "You are pale. What is the matter?"

"That poor kid," Rokuta said then struggled to get the next words out of his mouth. "Someone... someone... someone cut his horn off."

The beautiful Lady Gyoukuyou paled a little and after a moment to absorb the impact said

"I feared that such a thing might have happened."

"How could such a thing happen? Don't tell me that his king went to the bad so quickly. Sure, Gyousou seemed militant, but not the sort of soldier who could hurt his own kirin, I can't believe it of him. He had too much kindness in his eyes."

"I do not believe it could have been him," Genkun reassured him. "If he had performed such a terrible deed, Heaven would have punished him on the spot and likely renamed Tai once again. No I believe that it was either a Foresworn, or someone that works for them."

"Why do you think so?" Rokuta asked.

It seemed that lately everyone was seeing Foresworn under their beds. They had been nothing but a minor irritant in any kingdom, not a true threat, and Rokuta could not see why this had changed so suddenly in the last decade or so.

"You remember earlier that I told you to tell your kings to guard the Pearl. As you know the Pearl of Heaven is the well-spring for all of the reishin within a kingdom."

"Yes but each kingdom's Pearl of Heaven is already guarded by that kingdom's Imperial Dragon and Imperial Phoenix," Rokuta said. "Aren't they supposed to be semi-divine and indestructible? Like the bark of a riboku, isn't the hide of each Imperial Guardian impervious to any weapon, even a touki or a celestial weapon?"

The thought that any of the Pearls could be destroyed in any way was a chilling one. The Pearls of Heaven that lay at the heart of the mountain upon which the imperial palaces rested were the well-springs of the reishin for all of the kingdom, if that Pearl was destroyed then the wellspring would dry up and the kingdom would have no reishin. That kingdom would loose the essence of Heaven and become a place that was unimaginable to Rokuta. The magic reshin were intimately interwoven in each and every aspect of the land, to loose such an integral part of the very fabric of existence would be like watching fire loose its ability to give off light and heat. It was a terrifying thought.

"Yes, but there is a way around that restriction if one has an utter lack of morals of any kind. The horn of a kirin can kill the Imperial Guardians. The horn of a kirin is also the only thing that can possibly destroy a Pearl of Heaven."

"Destroy a Pearl of Heaven?!" rokuta exclaimed in disbelief.

He felt so shocked and confused by what she was saying that he was forced to parrot her words back to her like an idiot.

"Why would anyone want to do that? I can't even imagine such a thing," he said.

"Reishin are the powers of the four elements, related directly to the four God-Beasts," Genkun explained gently. "In essence, they are small pieces of divine power. If one were to be able to gain enough control over such divine power one could turn that weapon against a divine being itself."

Rokuta stared at her in disbelieving incomprehension.

"A God, Rokuta," Genkun said. "To break the Pearl of Heaven would release the ties that connect the Four Guardian Beasts to the lands. This would then place the reishin that answer to that Pearl of Heaven firmly in the destroyers command. The destroyer of the pearl, if it is done correctly, could gain the power equal to a god and thus become powerful enough to destroy one."

"How do we stop the Foresworn from taking a Pearl?"

"Fortunately gaining such power is not at all easy," genkun said. "Each kingdom has but one Heavenly Pearl, and even the Emperor of a kingdom cannot access it. Heaven made it that way on purpose, otherwise every king who has already gone to the bad and desired greater power would be able to challenge the throne of Heaven. The foresworn would need not only the horn of a kirin, but all twelve of that kingdom's sacred relics and Four of the Great Youma, one to represent each of the Four Guardian God-beasts; a Long-Gui, a drakh, and one for Seiryuu and Byako. Last, they would require a strangely specific sort of vessel to receive the power and be sacrificed to transfer the power to the man who would be king; their prospective sacrifice not only has to be a virgin, but according to the records, be "a child of this blood, but another star, one not subject to the will of Tentei."

"That's strangely specific, does it mean that this vessel is a Taika, like me?"

"I thought that at first too,"Genkun nodded with a cautionary finger. "But the record is very specific, a taika is brought into this world by a riboku, thus Divine will, and gets blown over to the other world where it attaches to the embryo of a child of that world, so it is of both the branch and the will of Heaven. The sort of creature that this prophesy speaks of is just the opposite; a child that is a blood relation of a denizen of this world but was not created by the will of Tentei."

Rokuta took a moment to process that particular assertion but the only way he could come up with a solution to the contradiction was the earth term for an illegitimate child, but that would be impossible on this world. There were no little "accidents" or occasions for a young man to be married at sword-point (in order to legitimize his bastard child) because every child had to be purposefully prayed for.

"All children who belong to the people of this world are born by praying to Tentei and tying a ribbon on a riboku instead of being born the other way like they are on that world," Rokuta protested uncomprehendingly. "The only way a child can be made to anyone of this world is if one is truly wanted. There are no accidental or unwanted children here!"

The subject of birth was a bit of a touchy one for him, personally, because his own parents on the other world had abandoned him to starve in the wilderness because his mother had kept having more babies than the family could afford to feed.

"I have no explanation for it either," genkun replied. "But it must somehow be a concern or Seioubo would not have warned so strongly."

* * *

**I wanted to go in a bit of a different direction from what I had written originally so I wrote in the scenes with Rokuta in them. The idea i had was kind of a crazy one but in the end I decided "why not go with it" this story's my speculation story any way, the Convenient Queen sticks much closer to canon, this one's mostly written for fun anyway. So enjoy!**

**On a more personal note, if anyone wants to read it, I will be posting the opening chapters of The Convenient Queen up on AO3 (An Archive of Our Own) under my same pen-name Nightheart there in a few days.  
**


	30. Book I: Path of Sorrows: Chapter 29

"Are you sure you're not just looking for an excuse to take off and loaf around in Kei again," his eternally young-looking (and ever cheeky) kirin said, his face a mask of skepticism.

Rokuta had just given him his report on what the Genkun had said to him about the possible dangers Seioubo had warned of. For some reason, the talk about the child of another star made him feel uneasy and he couldn't pinpoint precisely why.

"Naturally not," the wandering king reassured his kirin.

His kirin, as usual, looked unconvinced.

"I worry you're going to be a bad influence on Kei-ou's work ethic," he replied, peering closely at his king, who looked away. The kirin had seemed to have developed the ability to read his master's mind over the years.

"What?" he questioned. "It's not as though I can sneak her out the tour the brothels with me."

Youko Nakajima, besides being a girl who was presumably only interested in boys, was too busy to be interested right then.

_:...And she's kind of a **prude**,_: Shouryuu added mentally to himself.

"I'm genuinely going on legitimate business," he maintained. "I'm just as interested as you are in stabilizing the region, and these rumors of a Foresworn agenda are worrying to me too. I don't like the idea that those zealots might have some new way of circumnavigating the Will of Heaven."

"Then why go to Kei?" Rokuta asked curiously, next. "Wouldn't heading back to Tai be a wiser choice? That seems to be where all the controversy is stemming from, with no king on the throne it seems like the perfect place to ferment a whole lot of trouble if all the youma are anything to go by. And there's still that strange kaikyaku-girl and her weird new powers, think of all the damage it could cause if she got under the manipulative influence of another bad man again."

"I think she's safe enough where she is, besides, I have a feeling Youko's keeping a close eye on her in the blade of Suiguutou."

"Yeah, but she can only watch from afar. If something happens, no-one here will be in any position to intercede."

"I think they're all of a piece," Shuoryuu at last told his kirin, honestly.

"All this time I've been keeping an eye on things over in Tai i've never been able to figure out why the usurper would find a way to remove the king but then turn around and waste Tai rather than trying to gain profit by it. It's starting to make more sense now. He doesn't want to rule Tai, that usurper has another goal in mind."

"You think that the usurper is in league with the Foresworn?"

"I have reports that he's raised his own army," Shouryuu nodded.

"It won't matter if he's raised ten of them, at least not to En," Rokuta scoffed. "Unlike on our world where land-grabs and border skirmishes are the norm, if he tries to march an army over a border or sail it across the sea, Tentei will smite him before he can set foot on our shores."

"Unless he's figured out a way to circumvent that will. Tentei always acts decisively when there's a threat, but what if someone found a way to make it so he could not act?"

"Then En would still be the most stable kingdom in the world with an army capable of taking on whatever this fellow could dish out," Rokuta said confidently.

"There's something about all this I don't like," Shouryuu said. "I'm not an alarmist-"

"Yeah, rather the reverse of one," Rokuta said cheekily.

"But I've got a bad feeling about this," he finished.

Youko Nakajima, now Seikishi the regnant Queen of Kei, looked back at her advisor uncertain what to think.

"Well of course we'll be happy to have him here," she assured him. "But wouldn't he just be looking for his king anyway? If Kei were hosting another kingdom's missing king, wouldn't we know?"

"I do not know that we would, seeing as your friend Fuukan always seems to cross the border with impunity," the Kei kirin replied with stiff disapproval for the wandering ways of the insouciant Ever-King of En. "However, I can say that I'm pretty certain that Gyousou Saku is not here. The King of Tai has a very formidable aura, and he's not someone who would blend into a crowd easily. As fro why Taiki wishes to come to Kei, I believe it may be so that he can meet you."

"Me?" Youko questioned.

"Rather, more precisely I believe he would wish to sound us out on the possibility of borrowing Kei's armies for a time. Tai is overrun by Youma, the king is missing, and there is a usurper on the throne of Tai, if any kingdom ever needed an extra army or two, it would be Taiki's kingdom."

"I could only take my army to Tai if if had the rightful King of Tai to lead it, didn't you tell me that trying to do otherwise, even with good intentions, would bring down disaster?"

Youko wondered if she imagined the faint flicker of amusement in keiki's eyes as he said

"So your Majesty was listening to my lecture."

"I always listen to you Keiki," Youko replied seriously.

She just didn't always (or often) do as he recommended.

"And I'd be happy to lend whatever aid I can to a fellow ruler... if we ever find him."

She had tried calling the image of the missing king up in the Suiguutou but the sword had remained opaque on the matter. Either it felt that it was none of her business, or the sword was limited in what it could show her. Out of frustration with her limited abilities, she'd been keeping an eye on Yuka.

_:That girl..._: Yuoko thought with an internal headshake. _:She's going to find trouble again as soon as she can slip the leash, I just know it!:_

Yuka had been put into an intensive training regimen, entirely self-imposed. She had taken to learning stealth tactics, infiltration methods, and melee combat. She was getting alarmingly good at it, alarmingly fast. Some of it could be credited to her prior training under the former King of Kou, but a good deal of it seemed to be her own abilities coming into full blossom. Those wierd reishin abilities of hers only increased what she could do and she was quickly getting better at it.

"While Taiki hunts for allies here among the other nations," Keiki said with the smallest of smiles. "I believe it is his intention to search for his king by using a proxy. Your former schoolmate Sugimoto has proven herself a loyal ally to him, no doubt her penchant for finding trouble is something that will actually be useful to her for a change."

"That's what worries me!" Youko said. "I know I said we should leave her to her own devices, but now I'm regretting it already. Leaving Sugimoto to her own devices is like adding vinegar to baking soda, you can't contain the results and you'll end up with a mess!"

"After Taiki has done what he can in Kei, I believe he plans to see what other aid he might gather in some of the other kingdoms," Keiki switched the subject.

"Aren't you worried about the message from Seioubo?" Youko inquired.

"It is a tragedy that hurts my heart deeply, what has happened to my young friend Taiki, and it worries me greatly what his enemy plans to do with the horn that has been severed from Taiki," Keiki said gravely.

"If I had it my way, I'd march right on in to Tai and cut of the head of the horn-theif right off his shoulders," Youko said tartly. "It's a terrible, horrible thing to do to a kirin. You guys are walking embodiments of benevolence and mercy, how could anyone do such a thing to a creature that would never do anything bad to anyone ever? I just don't understand it."

"Nor do I, but it did happen. Part of Taiki''s journey will be to go back to Mt Hou and visit the Nyosen and Lady Genkun to see what he can't find out about how to reattach what has been severed... or if it is possible to do so."

"Well, he's welcome to stay and rest here for as long as he want's and we will help him out however we can," Youko reassured her advisor. "I'm looking forward to meeting him actually. Not just because he's a former classmate, but a little bird told me that you used to give him kirin-back rides!"

The look that Youko bent on him was full of amusment, Keiki probably suspected it was at his expense.

8 8 8

Her body was aching and sore, her head felt like it was host to a small horde of miniature demons detirmined to pount thier way out from the inside of her skull using pickaxes, and her muscles felt as weak as if she'd tried to swim across the lake and had just now hauled her body out of the water. Despite all of this, as Yuka showed off the extent of all her new abilities to her friend Kaname, she decided that she had never felt better.

As a final test of her abilities, the general of the rebel army had come up with a final training exercise comprised of three missions, fail one and she failed them all and had to remain on the island for further training. He had filled a mock fortress with young soldiers, ordering them to be on high alert. Then he had taken a tube that was to represent a scroll, put it in a locked box locked inside of a locked chest that had a weighting mechanism on the bottom of it that would sound an alert if tampered with, that was itself in a locked room guarded on the outside by vigilant guards. That tube, representing vital enemy information, was her first objective. Down in a "dungeon" in the deepest, most heavily guarded part of the fortress was a single "hostage" kept under guard and lock and key. Her second objective was to rescue the hostage and sneak him out from under guard without his being killed. Third, there was the leader of the fort in the central part, also under the heaviest of guards, that she was assigned to assassinate. Naturally the gentle and sweet Taiki had objected to that last mission, but the reward if she were to pull it off was enough to make her eager to accept his terms.

The three judges of the test, a man named Seirai who had come to the island in the middle of Yuka's training, Eishou the current leader of the fort and another official from Taiki's king's reign (one of the few that managed to survive General Ansen's purges) stood and stared, nearly slack-jawed in disbelief as Yuka pushed Taiki in front of her as proof of the fact that she'd rescued her kirin friend, then handed over a scroll. The "dead" fortress general stood right beside them, an arrow in one hand and his neck smeared with brilliant blue pain in a very obvious kill-strike, grinning.

"Well I suppose that there's no help for it," Eishou said with a sigh. "I've kept you here as long as you'll be kept. I suppose I must concede the issue with good grace and help you as much as I can, otherwise you'll just do what you want without my help and it'll be more dangerous for you."

She didn't bother to say that his statement was a true one. Taiki had asked her to find a way to help him find his king while he went on tour to gather as man allies to Tai's banner as he could muster. She had availed herself of every resource she could to sharpen herself until she was good enough to do what she needed to. She find that king, she'd find him and send him to Taiki and they'd make Tai all better so that Kaname wouldn't undergo shitsudo.

"I'm prepared to leave tonight," Yuka said. "I went over the plan with Seirai here, it's as good as it's going to get. As for the rest, I'll have to wing it when i get there."

"I still think your plan is a bad one," Eishou replied. "You have no idea what you're getting into with him, and Seirai must be even more desperate than I can imagine to go along with such a crazed notion. Asen is perhaps crazy, but he has never been a fool. Your thought to trick him is naive."

"I only go along with it because I am indeed more desperate than you can imagine," Seirai rumbled in reply, running a hand through his salt and pepper hair. "His army is trouble and he has allied himself with the Foresworn to an end I cannot even begin to predict, nor do I want to. He must be stopped and I will borrow any means, even a cats paw, even a young girl, to do it."

"There you have it then," Taiki said, for once his tone sounding decisive. "Yuka said she'll find him, and I believe she can do it. I'll travel with Seirai and Captain Ran to the other kingdoms to enlist any aid they can give me. We'll keep in touch."

"But travel with a single retainer..." Eishou protested once more.

"It's not any safer just traveling with me," yuka rebutted. "And we did that for a while. Across Youma-infested Tai I'd like to add. Besides, Seirai's a trained warrior, and I've heard he's one of the most loyal to the crown you've got, I think in a situation like this we should pick speed and secresy over safety in numbers."

"I agree," Taiki said. "Our Itenerary is... we'll travel across the Void Sea on a ship and land in the main port of En. I'll visit with the Ever King and see if I can get him to help. After I'm don'e in En, Seirai and I will travel overland, south and east to the kingdom of Kei to visit the Queen there. Once I'm done speaking with her I'll travel through the Blue Sea to the Yellow Sea and Mt Hou where I'll speak with Genkun and seek advice about... well, I'll seek advice."

The matter of his horn was still a very delicate one.

"Then it's on to the White Sea and the kingdom of Han where I will speak to the King there about possible aid once my king has been found. The more I can get ready ahead of time for when Gyousou-sama is found, the faster Tai can be healed from this ordeal."

"Awwww..." Yuka said, regarding her friend the way one might if thier sweet, adorable little brother just came out and said something mature and looked adorable doing it. "Kaname's so cute and detirmined, do it again!"

Kaname looked a little bit censurously, in a characteristically uncertain way, over at his young friend.

"While you're gathering your allies, I'll find him somehow. Don't you worry Kaname, I just know this will work!" Yuka enthused, looking eagre to get started.

The older men in the room, former generals all of them exchanged looks that bordered on a sort of rueful, resigned amusement.

"Well gentlemen," Seirai said at last. "I suppose we have been given our orders. It seems that we must rely on thier youthful optimism and the protection of Almighty Tentei."

"He says that like he doesn't think this is going to work," Yuka asided to Kaname.

"I'm half inclined to agree with him," Kaname replied. "You do realize that we're all mad, desparate fools right?"

"Ah but we are mad, desparate fools with the Will of Heaven on our side," Yuka said with a shrug.

"You're going to put your faith in a God you don't even seem to believe in?" he said incredulously.

"I put my faith in you and in me, if these men want to believe in the power of Tentei and that gives them the courage to let me do what I know I can do, then by all means I'll use whatever god they want to believe in."

"Typical Yuka, you're nothing if not practical I guess," Taiki said. "I find it sometimes a weird contradiction that you can actually physically feel the resonance with the reishin, that you can manipulate them by pushing out your will, and yet you claim to have no great connection with the Divine of this world."

"Your own fingers are pointing right back at you, mister willing embodiment of Heaven's Mandate," Yuka replied.

"Well i guess we make quite a pair, a kaikyaku who isn't entirely a kaikyaku and a kirin who isn't entirely a kirin."

"What are you talking about?" Yuka asked. "I'm just a normal girl in a weird situation. I haven't changed that much... have I?"

"I thought you said that your reishin required self-knowledge," Kaname said, with what passed for a scoff for him. "You should take another look at yourself if you can still say that. You made your choice Yuka, you know you can't go back to that normal school girl you were a few weeks ago."

Yuka was quiet for a very long moment.

"Will I ever see my father again, do you think?" she asked quietly, sounding and looking suddenly very young.

"I don't know," he said honestly. "I want to say yes, but I think things are bigger than that now."

"Regardless, I did make my choice and I'm not about to back down from it," yuka said, steeling herself. "It's silly to waste time worrying about the what-might-have-beens too. I do not regret helping you and being your friend, and I won't regret helping you find your king so you can make Tai a proper kingdom again either."

What was to become of her after that mission had been completed, whatever it entailed, was something she'd worry about when she could see what the situation left her and go from there.

_:It's funny, a few weeks ago I prided myself on being cool and aloof and independent, and now look at me, throwing every sensible thing away to go chasing rainbows with a unicorn!:_ Yuka thought with amusement at herself. _:I think I've lost all sense! I've become completely mad, utterly bonkers, quite round the bend. I don't think I'd trade it for the world.:_

Come what may, she knew... she was **all in**.


End file.
